An Angel's Heart of Black
by Harmonic Death
Summary: My vision of a FF7 sequel. I have tried as hard as possible to bring the world of FF7 to life with this story. I am trying to make this story a detailed and interesting experience for even veteran FF7 fiction readers. Please review and give suggestions.
1. A Typical Day

Awakening

The sun was rising.  Bright, flamboyant, and burning, the red sphere made its endless wander over the sharp mountain peaks of Mount Nibel.  The eye of fire lit the below landscape like a candle in the depths of a fathomlessly deep cave.  Lo, its beauty, it was but a mere flake of hazy yellow to the rising citizens of the small town of Nibelheim.  Many people were just arising, many had risen before, and even more were still steadily breathing in a deep sleep.  All was at peace.  

            The town itself was one often occupied by down to Earth people, the types of people who longed for a quiet life among the hills.  Although there certainly weren't too many hills to satisfy that taste, there was the indefinite presence of a looming mountain above.  The nostalgia of what lurked within the mountains was often enough fuel to keep the small number of townspeople safe from harm, yet interested enough to stay.  Most of the people had lived in the town for the most part of their lives, granted that they had survived…him.  He chose not to think of…him…

            His house was a small one of little value to a corporate man, but to a quiet outdoorsman, it was the perfect essential to stay out of the rain and cold.  Its single level of wooden walls carried the sweet aroma of oak.  Winding within the wooden scent was the wintry smell of smoldering wood in a fireplace.  This was the place he grew up in, but due to painful memories, was not his final resting place.  His dreary dreams were still haunted by the blood-spattered walls and distant screams of his mother…God bless her soul.  

            It was amazing to actually see where the winding path of life would finally take him.  His past such a rotten and blood stained one.  Now he was here, warmth surrounding him in a beautiful display of wooden bedposts, black blankets, and a creaky spring mattress.  Life, as it was now, was a giant leap from what it had been over the past seven years.  Since he had set out on his search for fame among the ranks of SOLDIER, when he was only fourteen years old, things had been incredulously difficult.  Now, seven years later, he was a strapping young man, famous as a hero, fairly rich, and known the world over as one of the most incredible fighter of them all.

            "Cloud!  What are you doing in there?  You better not be sleeping!" The soft voice of a twenty-year old girl echoed down the hallway, creeping between the cracks in the unlocked doorway.  Moments before, it had alarmed his awakening, now threatening its assuredness.  There was no answer.  "Cloud!  I'm going to kick your spiky headed butt if you don't get up and get dressed!"

            It was always like this.  Every morning the same scenario played.  Cloud, get up, Cloud get dressed, we have stuff to do today.  He was used to it, and it slightly amused him, in a bored fashion.  It was like they were married…he chose not to think about that.  He and Tifa Lockheart were but mere close friends.  Maybe a little bit more than that…but once again, he chose not to travel that road of thought.

            He rose up out of his black, satin bed, the silky sheet beneath the heavy comforter sliding across his well developed, bare muscles.  His bright blonde hair, normally spiked severely with long, sleek wedges, was slightly disheveled.  He loved his hair.  It made him look so different, sleek…sexy.  He chuckled at the thought.  It was true though, and he wouldn't deny it.  The girls seemed to flock to him whenever he entered a room.  All of them, it seemed except for Tifa, but that didn't matter, he quickly asserted.  Slipping out of his black boxers, the young man, headed into the small bathroom connected to his room.  

            He stared at himself in the mirror for a moment as he turned on the water nozzle of the shower.  They never failed to catch his attention.  His eyes were so bright.  It was a mark of SOLDIER.  It meant that he was better than 'human'.  It meant that he could run faster, jump higher, see further, hear everything, smell everything, and even heal faster than a normal person.  The list went on further than that with the phenomenal enhancements that mako produced on the body.  He didn't care though.  He just wanted to be himself, something difficult attained with His shadow lurking in his soul…

            The young hero shook his head in ashamed annoyance with his thoughts and stepped into the hot flow of the steaming shower behind him.  It felt good.  There was nothing like a hot shower to wake you up in the morning.  He never did have a problem with weariness though.  As he scrubbed the suds over his body, he reminisced his past experiences with the rebellion faction known only as Avalanche.  He had spent the past six months with each of them and had grown accustomed to they're presence.  Now they were all off on they're own.

            Oh well, he thought to himself.  At least he had Tifa to turn to.  He wasn't alone after the final battle with…  He refused to say the name.  Each thought of Him was one thought wasted that he could have used to imagine how fine Tifa's long, smooth legs looked in the little black skirt she always wore.  He grinned to himself.  He was the luckiest guy in the world.  While Tifa and himself were not exactly a couple, he still lived in the same house as her.

            As he thought about it again, 'he' lived in 'her' house.  It wasn't 'his' house in any right.  Luckily she had managed to buy the house from the previous owner after returning to Nibelheim.  The bi-level house was fairly large, containing two bedrooms, a large kitchen and dining room, and two bathrooms.  This helped, because neither of them ever fought over bathroom time, as if they would to begin with.  He finished his washing session and stepped out of the steaming shower, droplets, dripping from his frame freely.  The door was wide open, but he didn't care as he dried himself off.  Tifa never came into his room that often.

            "Cloud!  Put some clothes on!" Tifa huddled out of the doorway as soon as she laid eyes upon the young man.  Silently, and inwardly she smiled to herself as a wave of…something washed over her.  Wow…  "Are you dressed yet?"

            "What do you think?  I just stepped out of the shower," the young, blonde haired man exclaimed.  He wrapped the dampened towel around his body and walked through the doorway, past the slightly jittery girl, and towards the closet.  He pulled out one of several of his signature SOLDIER uniforms and laid it out on the ruffled bed.  "What did you need?"

            Tifa was a beautiful, young woman.  She stood slightly below his line of sight, and had the body of a supermodel.  Long auburn hair flowed behind her in a loose ponytail as she walked into the bathroom.  She always seemed to wear the same set of clothes, but it didn't make her bland at all.  In fact, the tight little black skirt she wore was enough to make any man drool. And the tight, white shirt that covered her particularly busty chest was skintight, to say the least.  He had no problem, he thought to himself, smirking. 

            "I ran out of toothpaste," Tifa held up the slightly cringed bottle of toothpaste she had retrieved from his bathroom mirror cabinet.  She headed out of the room towards hers down the hall, her fighting boots clanked against the shiny wooden floors as she made her way.  Cloud pulled on his black boxers and knee high-socks, after all, it was chilly in Nibelheim.  He next pulled on his black, SOLDIER cargo pants.  He had discarded the use of the ratty purple uniform he had worn for the past six months for the black, officer series uniform.

            The only real difference from before was that the fabric was thicker, and made of a comfortable, yet basically indestructible material.  The shirt also had long sleeves, in contrast to his sleeveless uniform from before.  He pulled the uniform on and tied the laces on the black fighting boots, afterward, zipping the large zipper that protected the laces from coming undone in a fight.  The only thing left to add to his attire was his armor, and belt.  He first snapped the heavy, metal belt around his stomach, where it acted more or less as a stomach plate.  The metal design on the faceplate of the belt gleamed in the penetrating sunlight. 

            He attached the leather straps that held his armor to his shoulders, and ran the brown belt through the connecter slots on his dual Ziedrich shoulder plates.  Both Ziedrich were composed of a shiny mythril metal.  The leather straps crisscrossed over his chest in the shape of an x, similar to…His…but he didn't care.  It held his armor tight, and that's all he cared about.  That monster of a man may have been a genius, but he didn't invent the art of combat.  Cloud quickly attached his Escort Guard Armlet to his right forearm, and his Shinra Alpha Armlet to his left forearm.  Both armlets were a shiny silver and had six glowing materia orbs in the underside slots of the strong armor.

            Finally, the young fighter pulled his fighting gloves onto his bare hands and latched them tightly with a small fastener.  He checked in the mirror, fixing his hair with both hands.  His bright blonde hair seemed to take its sleek, spiky form as it dried.  He smoothed the wedges out the way he wanted them until they looked normal and turned away from the mirror.  He glanced back quickly and cocked his head to one side.  He rubbed his hand through the back of his hair and smirked to himself.  He had been letting his hair grow out longer over the past month and it seemed to be working.  The thick spikes were now almost to his shoulders.  

            Cloud walked over to his closet, in his sleek new fighting uniform, and reached in to retrieve his sword.  The wooden hilt met his palm within the shadows and came out less than gleaming.  He had grown so skilled with his swordsmanship that he had gone all the way back to using his old Buster Sword.  He liked his Ultima Weapon sword but it was just too flashy looking.  He didn't like being too flashy.  He had used his Buster Sword since the very beginning and would always hold it as his favorite weapon.

            The seven inch wide blade was basically indestructible and was made of a dull mythril metal.  It was massive looking in comparison to him, he wasn't the biggest guy in the world, but he fought like a master with it.  The razor sharp sword had originally been his best friend Zack's, before he died…maybe that was one reason he always used it.  Oh well, he thought to himself as he walked out of the room and down the hallway.  A magnetic strip on the armor straps held the sword to his back firmly as he headed down the stairs and into the kitchen.  The magnetic strip was specially designed to only attract one sword, just to free the wielder of the fear of having a knife fly out of nowhere towards the magnetic sheath.  

            "Good morning sunshine, what's on the agenda for the day," Cloud asked as he entered the kitchen where Tifa was cooking breakfast.  He walked over to the stove and took a whiff of what was searing in the pans scattered upon it.  Tifa had always been an incredible cook.  Ever since she worked as the manager of Tifa's Seventh Heaven, back in Sector Seven of Midgar, she had been known almost religiously as the best cook around.  The young woman was cooking eggs and bacon, and had several slices of toast scorching in the toaster.

            "Look good?  Anyway, we need to go get some groceries first off.  After that we have to head over to Cosmo Canyon to visit Nanaki.  He called, via satellite phone this morning and said that he wanted us to come visit him.  He can't really leave the canyon since he is the protector or whatnot, so he wants us to come visit him." Tifa shoveled the eggs, bacon, and hot toast onto two plates and sat down across from her friend to eat with him.

            "Doesn't Vincent live with him there," Cloud asked as he took a bite of the utterly delicious eggs.  A look of delight played across his face as he nodded with approval of her cooking.  Tifa took a few bites before replying.  

            "I think so, he's so quiet all the time, you never know where he is at or what he is doing." The girl took a bite of toast as she examined Cloud from a few feet away.  He looked so cute, she thought, all set up in his little SOLDIER uniform.  He had also grown quite muscular in his days of fighting.  She couldn't help but glance at him every once in a while between bites.  "Barret and Marlene moved back to North Corel to help rebuild the economy of the town.  Yuffie moved back to Wutai to…well, God only knows what the little girl is up to.  I think Reeve finally came out of hiding and got rid of his Cait Sith robot.  He is trying to get Midgar running again apparently."

            "Cid is all the way in Rocket Town with Shera.  I heard on the news that he proposed to her.  Its unbelievable how exploited we all are since the incident." Cloud shook his head as he finished his meal.  With a stretch he grabbed the remote from the other side of the table and flipped the channels to the, still titled, Shinra News.  

            "Yeah, old Cid is finally settling down I guess," Tifa grinned at the thought of the grisly pilot falling in love.  I guess someone has to love his foul mouth, she thought to herself.  The news anchorman was sitting behind his typical table that he was always perched at.  "We should probably go to the store now.  It's going to be busy if not."

            "Yeah, your right.  Let's go." Cloud Strife flicked the television off and headed out the front door with Tifa Lockheart.  The town had grown accustomed to they're presence, therefore they were not bombarded by photographers and journalists.  They had saved the world from utter destruction, but it was only because they wanted to.  It wasn't for the fame…


	2. Awakening

            Whispers.  Whispers echoed everywhere.  Millions upon millions of faintly uttering voices called out in, what seemed, a longing plea.  Faint lights flashed about like brilliant arrays of stars.  With each rise and fall of the black lashed eyelids, the rays of utter flamboyance ricocheted within its wide, fearing pupils.  As the fluttering eyelids slowly opened and focused a new setting came into perspective.  The tendrils of emerald seemed to swarm around his body, and the perpetual setting he was in.  It was a beautiful green, matching the blue-green glow to his retina.  Lifestream…

            The whispers seemed to grow stronger and more persistent with they're faint words.  They were in a different language that he did not comprehend.  The once faint voices now screamed in a horrifying perseverance.  Brutal, ear splitting screams that frightened him into the fetal position.  Why was he here?  What happened?  Why couldn't he remember?  Why were they questioning him?  Who were…they?

            The screams became so decibel that they penetrated the strong hands, which clamped to his ears so tightly.  With a sudden burst of freezing wind, he to, lo he knew not of himself, began to scream in pain.  His voice erupted with a slightly deep, yet soft- spoken, tone.  His jaw arched downward with the feral growl of his uncontrollability, baring perfectly shaped, white teeth.  He couldn't make it stop.  The voices just persistently shrieked higher, almost setting a tone of antagonism upon the tattered man.

            Silence.  The only thing left reverberating within the green world of nothingness was the fading screams that were escaping from his rasping throat.  He began to sob slightly, not with emotionality but with a sense of utter despair, ultimately, fading sanity.  His strong Caucasian hands gripped his long silver hair tightly and lightly pulled down.  His long silver bangs matted to his perspiring face, shedding a shade across his tightly shut eyelids.  The dark eyelashes quivered like the wings of a hummingbird in shock.

            What was this place that he was so bereft of power?  What was this antagonizing realm, which had condemned his tarnished, vanquished soul?  The spiritual outcast, which he had become, surely had sent his wretched soul spiraling into eternal damnation.  What men of lesser rank deemed as the fiery chasm of Hell.  But this it could not be.  No, for it was not the epitome of pain, nor the harvester of sorrow, or even one of the seven circles of endless and fathomless darkness, where not even dwelled the serpentine beast of shadow.  Suddenly a thought struck him…Rank? 

            Why had he thought of rank?  And, why had he suddenly thought of 'his' spirit to be as an outcast damned to only Hell?

            _Because you are the destined ruler of everything…_

He leapt to his feet within the blink of an eye.  His reflexes were so quick that he was hardly a blur.  Instantaneously his ambidextrous hands reached to his right hip for what seemed to be a weapon.  The long, pale fingers grasped only air in they're retreat from his waist.  Images flashed through his mind as he glanced over to find nothing at his waist but a large, metal belt, engraved with a symbol, and the black fabric of fighting pants.  He looked upon himself, slowly regaining memory of his former self.  As he examined the black, knee high fighting boots secured around each of his feet and legs, spectral images of him running through battlefields, littered with corpses and fighting men, trailed through his memory.   The combat boots fit like a glove and were tightened to his legs with silver latches, rather than laced.  This was all he could tell was covering his body. 

Who had spoken?  The voice echoed in his brain, reverberating from the constructed walls of many years of living with it.  It fed off of him like a disease, but this he did not see, for his true self lay dormant within his own mind.  Masqueraded by the female tone of this voice, in the darkest corners of his collaboration of reality and persistent nightmares, his true self was locked in a cell that had no key.  His desperation for some sort of companionship pushed him to imagine more clearly who the voice belonged to.  Then it clicked…"Jenova."

            _My son, you have awoken to reality.  I longed for your companionship for what has seemed like years…but it has only been one month…_

            "One month since what?  What has happened, who am I?  What is this place I am left in?  Why do I know so much, but remember so little?" The desperate voice of the young man cried out in anguish.  The swarming, green lights, swishing around his tiny island of despair, seemed to grow fierce.  They flowed around the island of nothingness like a hurricane, obviously trying to fend off some intruding force.  He stood tall and rigid and looked around, his emerald eyes swishing between the mako hue of blue to the glowing green of the lights around him.  The waist length of his locks of hair whipped around his very well developed muscles like a river of molten silver.  

The Lifestream grows impatient with my presence, but I shall inform you before your resurrection and destroy this place.  Your name is Sephiroth, never given a last name because you were born not unto humanity, but under the supreme race of which I descend from.  I am your mother Sephiroth.  I gave birth to you twenty-six years ago.  When you were born, I used my magic to give you the form of a human.  This gave you the empowerment to blend into the worthless society, so we could finally make our rise against humanity.  We are destined to destroy this worthless race of humans, also known as the Cetra, and reign as the ultimate power of this planet.

Sephiroth brought a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes.  Images raced through his head.  The blood dripping from his long, curved sword, and the distant screams of human suffering, they all came back.  He didn't like it.  He felt everything begin to shift within himself as so many memories flooded the empty embankments of his throbbing mentality.  He almost felt as if…he were losing control.  "What… are you… doing to me?  My mother's name was Jenova, but not…you…  Who are…you?"

You dare speak such evils to your own dear mother?  I am your mother, not some worthless human creature…very unlike the worthless scum that killed you one month ago.  You will do as I say, and you will obey like the obedient son I knew before.

Sephiroth opened his eyes and glanced around, stiffly, but with the precocity of an eagle.  His darting eyes found nothing but shimmering lights and infinitely extending plains of swaying emerald.  Painstakingly, more memories punctured his thoughts, causing him to squint his glowing set of iris.  A flash of a crying young man with slightly long, spiky, blonde hair ripped its way through his burning retinas, just as another of a similar young man with long, black, spiky hair followed it.  These people were familiar…all of them, he noticed, as more and more flooded like a river.  This wasn't him.  He wouldn't do those horrible things.  He protected people, not killed people.  This wasn't him, he thought to himself.  Then it all came together…

Now gather yourself my son, we must make haste before the Lifestream processes your spirit energy and reduces your existence to nothingness.  We will begin extermination of the human race after we return.

"…No…I will not follow you Jenova.  I realize what you did to me all those years ago…you made me do a lot of things that I would have never done on my own.  I was confused and lost, even still I am, but you took advantage of my despair and manipulated my thoughts," Sephiroth thrashed his gaze upward, his long silver bangs flailing and silkily resting back into the sleek position.  The words gritted through his perfectly white teeth in a controlled ferocity.  "I didn't think anyone could do what you did, but you did it, and you ruined everything I worked so hard to accomplish.  I will never allow you to do what you did again…for my sake and the sake of the people who destroyed you…  I would rather reduce to nothingness, and serve a better purpose in death, than resurrect and destroy humanity!"

…Very well…impudent human disgrace…I will absorb your life force unto my own and use you against your will to destroy the planet…you are nothing without me…

"No you will not Jenova…" came the soft voice of a young woman, several yards away from the tall, dark man on the small, blank island.  Sephiroth's eyes darted to her with a gleam of mako as they focused.  "His lifeforce has been preserved as the planet did unto mine.  He will not go anywhere unless he is resurrected by Holy, and the planet confides in it.  Retreat your consciousness from this sacred place Jenova, or I will be forced to summon the planet's power to cast you out of here."

Sephiroth froze, his stone glare beginning to curve thoughtfully.  The girl…a searing red light began to blind his vision as a shrill ringing noise began to override his senses from clarity.  He began to dizzy under the invisible force, and fell to his knees unconsciously.  The last thing he perceived before the blackness overwhelmed him was the girl who had reprimanded his mothe- or the thing that was trying to manipulate him.

She was fairly small, with a light complexion of her skin, and she wore a long pink dress that ended its descent just before her ankles.  A small, red jacket adorned over top of the dress, and a set of golden bracelets protected her wrists.  In her hand she held a long metal staff as her long brunette hair billowed around her body freely.  Jenova screamed in anger as the distance between the fallen man and consciousness increased, again, and again…

****

****

            Warmth seemed to flow like blood.  It was a dramatic transformation to the cold and uncomfortable world of nothingness from before.  Yet to open the caskets of green, he sat up in the soft bed beneath him, resting his tired head on the, what felt like, wooden headboard behind him.  Had it all been a dream, no…he forgot, he didn't ever sleep.  Due to the mako inducements he had undergone in the Shinra Military squadron of SOLDIER, sleep was rarely needed.  He usually slept a maximum of an hour and half a week, not even that when he was fighting in the Shinra/Wutai War.  That was in the past though, lo, time obviously did not exist in the afterlife.  He lightly chuckled to himself, and found that he was in a very small room, due to the quick reverberation of his voice from the walls around him.  He rubbed his forehead and snapped his glowing eyes open.

            "Where am I," he asked to no one in particular as he checked his surroundings.  The room was very small, approximately eight feet by twelve feet.  The bed his lower body was still consumed by had white sheets and a soft white comforter on top.  A small vase of flowers sat, very lively and bright, on a sunlit windowsill, and a small bed table positioned against the wall next to him had, what seemed to be, clothes on it.  He slicked his very long silver hair behind his head and turned to sit at the edge of the soft bed.  He noticed that he was only wearing a short set of black boxers, and a pair of thermal socks specially designed by Shinra to keep they're SOLDIERs warm in the chilliness of Midgar.

            He reached over to the table and unfolded the black fighting pants, which originally belonged to a complete Top Officer Series SOLDIER uniform.  He had discarded the shirt long ago, he remembered, after buying a long leather coat that trailed down to his calves.  After putting on the loose fighting pants, he latched the large, SOLDIER belt around his stomach and attached it to the hem of the thick, black fabric of his pants.  He tightened the leather straps connected to the top of the belt across his chest and tightened them securely over his shoulders. "I wonder why my uniform is here?"

            The tall, ex-SOLDIER next pulled his black, leather coat over himself and tightened it around his midsection with a small, silver buckle on the front.  The coat was specially tailored to fit around his muscles and abdomen perfectly, and well showed off his impressive frame beneath.  The crisscrossing straps over his chest covered only a small portion of his bare, muscular chest, but that was the way he liked it.  Finally he reached for the shiny, silver shoulder plates that had protected him in battle since he had made the rank of First-Class.  

First he placed a thin, silver padding over top of his shoulders and latched them securely with straps that went under each of his armpits and connected behind his long trailing hair.  After that he placed the four-piece adornment of silver plates over his shoulders and strapped them with similar buckles to the silver padding beneath.  On the front of each plate were three holes that were arranged in a triangular fashion, but other than that there was no other symbol or marks that were usually seen on that type of armor.  The only things left were a pair of silver wrist bracelets, his black fighting gloves and something he did not expect…his sword.

After he slid the thick bracelets on and pulled his gloves onto his hands, the completely dressed man reached cautiously for the black Katana handle of his sword.  The sword was very beautiful, lying across the table in its black sheath, but it held the most fearsome deadly power within its indestructible blade.  The handle was about nine inches long and was wrapped in a black grip cloth just like all Katana swords were.  The small gaps between the crisscrossing fabric gleamed with small materia orbs, and the small guard between the handle and blade was forged of some sort of black metal.  

He clasped his hands over the black handle and lifted the curved Katana sword, still encased in its black sheath, from its resting place on the table.  He slowly unsheathed the reflectively silver, five- foot blade from its sheath and examined the untainted blade.  This was the sword that had been passed down his family from generation to generation, Masamune.  Professor Gast had given it to him just before he left Shinra.  He mentioned that it was one of the most powerful weapons in the world, it would never break on him in a fight, and that it could only be wielded properly by him...   Sephiroth slowly slid the blade back into the sheath and tied the fairly long Katana to his side.  

He had never known anyone in his family, and he had no idea how Professor Gast would have gotten a hold of the weapon, but he never asked any questions upon receiving such a fine sword.  Maybe Gast had known his father or mother?  After all, he had been there his entire life.  Why hadn't the man told him anything of his past?  Maybe he really was just an experiment…an engine of destruction for Shinra to use to they're every whim.  I won't believe it, he thought to himself.  There is more to me than a big ugly monster and a mako pod.  Sephiroth tossed his hair back and walked out the doorway of the room.  The next room was only a few square feet larger than the other one, and had few things within it.  A few pictures of miscellaneous images hung on the log cabin like walls, and only a wooden chair and a blanketed couch occupied the shiny wooden floors. 

"Small house…" the tall, black clad man noted as he stepped out the front door.  Bright sunlight invaded his pupils as they focused to the new surroundings, but it affected him not.  What he found outdoors was something stolen from a dream.  Flowers.  Flowers as far as the eye could see, in his case that was very far.  Grassy plains stretched over the horizon where a dusk sun could be seen taking its last steps of the day.  Seeming to glow in the gray mountains beyond were faint auroras of brilliant green and blue.  The beautiful hues combined into what perceived to the eye as arrangements of cirrus clouds, but, due to his experience of living in Midgar, Sephiroth knew that they were actually the gaseous compounds of Lifestream partially in a mako state.

"…Beautiful…" he uttered as he took in all of his surroundings.  He wasn't sure where he was but he knew that he could get used to it.  He suddenly ended his thoughts as he sensed something nearing him.  The magical properties that mako induced on the body allowed SOLDIERs to have a vast aura of awareness, and over his past twenty or so years of fighting, he had grown very acute to it.  He spun around swiftly, but calmly, on one heel, just in time to meet the, slightly shocked, emerald gaze of a beautiful young woman.  It was her…

"Sephiroth…how do you feel," she asked in the softest of innocent voices.  She had after all lived a pure life.  She had grown up in the worst areas of Midgar's slums, kept virginity even through countless near-rape experiences, avoided crime, and after all of it she died at the blade of a laser sharp sword with no one to turn to.  How did he know all that though, he thought to himself.  Then it came to him, just like all the other evading memories that were constantly returning home.  He had known Aeris soon after he had become the Top Officer of SOLDIER.  Another memory returned with a flash as he remembered how he had first met her.  His friend, and trainee, Zack Strife, had begun going out with her after he gained the rank of First Class.  He had taken her to a Shinra party and introduced her to him, he remembered.  She had been so nice and sweet to him, even though he was of high rank, and often feared by citizens.

It cringed him on the inside that he had done such an evil as to kill a sweet person such as Aeris Gainsborough.  He gave a slightly confused look and tossed his hair back with one hand as he looked down at the girl who was several inches shorter than him.  "I feel fine…but what is going on, how did I get to this place?"

"I figured you would ask that.  Well, you got your butt kicked by my friends in Avalanche-"

"I know that much, and I didn't have control over myself, so whatever I did while possessed…I'm sorry for…" Sephiroth became slightly irritated with the blunt comment, but Aeris nodded and continued.

"Come on inside, we got to sit down and talk about this because things are going to seem very weird." The duo walked inside, the grass crunching under they're feet as they made they're way into the very small cabin.  Sephiroth sat down on one end of the couch as Aeris leapt onto the couch and landed in a laid back position, casually lying across the rest of the couch.  He was slightly shocked by her casual behavior; he had expected her to act very hateful to him.  "Okay Seph, after you died in the battle, your soul was absorbed by the planet, but!"

His attention was suddenly jerked fully to her stern green eyes.  She was curling one of her long, brown locks of hair with one finger as she spoke.  "Something really odd happened after you reached the gap between the lifestream and the natural world.  The planet, unbeknownst of what you were, sent you here."

"What do you mean unbeknownst?  It didn't know that I was a human or what?  Shouldn't I have been absorbed and circulated through again," Sephiroth asked with a slightly desperate confusion to his crisp voice.

"Yes, exactly.  The planet should have absorbed you, but you see, the planet isn't a very smart lifeform, if that is what you want to call it.  It is almost like a person in a coma.  It feeds and lives off of the lifestream, but it has no sense of personality, mentality, or perception, because it is basically a plant.  The only thing it can do is sort its own Lifestream to be used again, it is almost an automatic process.  The thing is if it finds something that it can't reuse, it has to put it somewhere where it won't circulate it again.  That is where people like us come in." Aeris continued after slow nods by the man before her.  She knew he was very intelligent, one of the most intelligent people on the planet before he died, so she knew she wouldn't have to repeat herself twice.

"If you remember the whole ordeal with Shinra wanting to find the Promised Land, or whatever you want to call it, that was what all of us Cetra were constantly seeking.  On the planet it is more or less a religion that you had to stay true to in order to find.  That isn't true.  The only way to even make it to the Promised Land is to have the blood of the ancient Cetra in your veins.  The Cetra were the original race of humans, and they were more or less, a part of the planet itself.  If you think about it, the planet can't absorb itself, so to counter this, the planet sends those who are of this race to a parallel dimension that is exactly like the planet, except without all the things that are in the natural world such as people and buildings.  It is really complicated and difficult to understand." Aeris took a breath.  Sephiroth just stared, not sure what to make of the whole ordeal.

"So why did I end up here then?  I'm not an ancient, and I don't have blood of the Cetra in my veins.  I carried Jenova cells for Christ's sake, shouldn't I be spiraling into Hell right now?" Sephiroth shook his head and awaited a reply.  The beautiful young woman only shook her head.

"Sorry.  What happened with you was the planet confused you as being an ancient due to something that is in your mind.  When you went on that rampage across the planet with Jenova in your head, you absorbed an ungodly amount of knowledge from the Lifestream.  That apparently was your main goal, to absorb all of the Lifestream.  Well, somewhere in that head of yours still lays the dormant knowledge of the original birth of the planet, and due to this, the planet did not absorb you, but sent you here…" Aeris sat upright and got up from the couch, leaving the baffled young man in his stiff position.  "You're a special case, and you got lucky because of it.  Now you don't die, you kind of 'live' here now."

"…Damn it…damn it all to Hell!" Sephiroth shot up from his seat and walked over to the window, where night had surely fallen.  It was so beautiful, much more so than any other night he had ever seen when he lived on the planet.  This wasn't what he wanted.  Life without what he had known before was not worth living, especially since he wasn't of any importance in a world like this.  His sword, his rank, his life, meant nothing here.  He was just a dark spot on a surreal, white canvass.  That was this entire place was…surreal.  It wasn't worldly, only stagnant, and dreamlike.  That was all it meant to him at least…  "I don't belong here.  Why couldn't I just die like any other human…like all the people I murdered!"

"What are you talking about?  Why wouldn't you want to be here?" Aeris walked over to calm him down with a gentle hand to his arm.  He turned his head to look over at her, his eyes taking her back.  Such sorrow and pain lingered within his glowing green eyes.  The tint of the glow seemed to fight an endless battle between green and blue as his feelings thrashed with turmoil within.  "You have basically been granted eternal life in a world of perfection and you would throw it away given the chance?  You are just going to have to live with it, because this is the place you were put and the planet doesn't make reconsiderations, it can't.  The only way you can ever get back to the natural world is if someone decides to resurrect you, and that type of magic hasn't been used for thousands of years, and even if it was possible, I doubt anyone would want to bring a mass murderer back to life."

"I can't believe you call me a mass murderer.  You don't even know me so don't make accusations you can't hold up.  You didn't 'know' me before I went 'insane' so don't ever call me something so impudent ever again," Sephiroth crossed his arms and turned back to the window.

"Look, I'm sorry.  I know this is a big change for you…heck it's a big change for me too.  You can't go around wishing for death, and you have to except this life you have been given…"

"What life?  What really is there to this place besides getting up, breathing, and then going back to sleep?  Does time even exist in this world," Sephiroth sighed as he searched for his reasons.  Aeris just shook her head.

"This place is the original planet Sephiroth.  This is the planet before the followers of the Cetra branched off and civilized themselves.  Just because it is the 'afterlife' doesn't mean that threats of monsters, and need of protection don't exist.  This is the same world, just taken from the past.  We are still alive and we can still die just as easily, but the only difference is if we die, we still get reprocessed back to this world.  The clock ticks just as fast as it did in the natural born world…things are just…different sort of."

"How many people live in this world?  There couldn't possibly be that many of us…" Sephiroth rested his hand on the black hilt of his Masamune as he tried to understand what kind of situation he was in.  He had been in countless battles where he had nearly been killed, even deep within a massive war, but he had never been where he is now…

"Millions, Sephiroth…just like the other planet…things have changed a lot but on the outside they haven't." Aeris began to walk into another small room of the little house, where a kitchen seemed to be.  Her words echoed like the passage of time through his head.  She didn't understand…  He didn't want to live.  Knowing he had done the things he did, death was something he wished to embrace, not this perfect world of emptiness.  He started for the doorway, when the beautiful young girl in the other room walked out with her hands on her hips.  "And where do you think you are going?"

"I'm leaving," Sephiroth uttered as he walked out of the house and into the overwhelming darkness ahead.  Aeris just shook her head and went back to cooking dinner.

"He'll be back…he'll be back…"


	3. Dilemma

Dusk was just making its disappearance in the purplish sky around the plateaus of Cosmo Canyon.  The dry, sandy ground spattered under the grinding wheels traveling over top of it as a small, red buggy made its way up the rocky hills.  The remaining light reflected off of the silver windshield, and the humming of the engine echoed off of the tall canyon walls.  Shelled, desert Sahagins frisked away in fear as it made its ascent to the tribal grounds above.

"I wonder what Nanaki has been up to lately.  He sounded kind of jittery on the phone earlier," Tifa Lockheart spoke from within the compact buggy.  Cloud looked over coolly and pushed a compact disk into the CD player of the black dashboard.  He turned the volume down to a manageable level just before the music erupted from the speakers.  He switched the track number, and soon enough, the melodic acoustic guitar and vocals of Metallica's Fade to Black echoed through the small vehicle.  Tifa shook her had and put a hand to her forehead.  "I don't know how you listen to that crap…"

"Hey, its my favorite band, what can I say.  But anyway, I'm sure everything is alright." Cloud turned the steering wheel to the left as he rounded another turn.  The flames from the town could be seen in the distance.  The blonde haired young man clicked the headlights on as he sped up.  The cliffs were dangerous after all.  "Look, we're almost there."

As the solo to the song ended, the duo parked the red buggy outside and started up the path to the small town.  The darkness surrounding the place was eerie, but it was nothing out of the ordinary.  The occasional scuffle of a nearby animal was about the only thing to jump about as they headed to the front gate.  There was a broad man with a green shirt and khakis standing at the front gate.  He had a dark tan and his eyes looked tired from the previous daytime heat.  He only nodded at the two as they entered the town ahead.

"This place hasn't changed a bit since we were last here." Cloud glanced around as he spoke.  Several people were very familiar from they're previous visits to Cosmo Canyon, but there were many who had traveled there since.  The Cosmo Candle still burned bright, and the dry air surrounding the plateau still smelled like sand.  It was amazing how much you could recall once you revisited something, but how little you remember after you leave it.

"Yeah I know.  Lets go up to Nanaki's room and see what's up." Tifa and Cloud climbed up the final flight of stairs and headed towards the Protector of Cosmo Canyon's room.  The walls were brown and caked with clay all around.  The thick clay seemed to keep water and other foreign substances from leaking into the cavernous building.  As they entered the main chamber above they wiped they're dusty feet off on the Bandersnatch skin rug.  They both looked up quickly at the familiar clicking of claws on the floor.  

"Welcome back," Nanaki exclaimed happily.  Although he was a rare species of wolf, he had no trouble making eye contact with humans.  He was extremely muscular, easily capable of swatting a man down in one swipe of his claws, and stood about three and a half feet high.  His whole body was covered in soft flaming red fur, and at the very tip of his tail was the mark of his species, a flame.  Battle tattoos lined every curve and scar on his strong body, representing forty- eight years of relentless fighting tactics.  He was a very amazing creature, capable of talking, casting magic, and withholding a higher I.Q. than most humans.  "It has been lonely here without my friends."

"You have friends everywhere here, Nanaki, why do you say that," Tifa walked over and scratched him behind his ears.  Nanaki chuckled lightly.  Cloud and Tifa walked over to the couch and sat down, Tifa falling a little closer than usual to the blonde haired swordsman next to her. 

"It used to be that people came here to learn about the planet and the stars, but that is no longer so.  Most people come here nowadays to pester me about the past few months.  More or less, everyone who has been here in the past month has been either a news anchorman or a columnist from the Shinra newspaper." Nanaki sighed and scratched his broad chest with one claw.  His eyes stopped on the two.  "So how have you two been?  When's the big day, eh?"

"We've been fine, but what do you mean…the big day," Cloud asked with a narrow of his eyes.  Nanaki laughed and shook his head.

"Aren't you guys together or something like that?"

Tifa fidgeted slightly and brushed her bangs back; Cloud just sort of froze.  "No, its nothing like that, we just live together in Nibelhiem."

Nanaki rolled his head to the side, coughed in a non-believing type of way and walked over to the bookshelf at the other end of the room.  Jumping up onto his forelegs he retracted his claws and grabbed a book off of the wooden shelf just before turning back on three legs.  He set it down on Cloud's lap and sat down on a rug a few feet away.  "This is why I had you travel so far to visit…"

"What is it," Cloud asked with a raise of his eyebrow.  Tifa looked over with a spark of interest also.  Nanaki's eyes slightly bugged out at the question and a sly smirk crossed his face.

"Well, that would be what most people call a 'book', but call it what you will.  What is inside that book is what is so important about it.  Turn to page three hundred and twenty nine."

Cloud blushed slightly as Tifa giggled, and moved over closer to him to see as he turned the pages.  She was so close he could feel her soft breath on his cheek.  It made him burn inside.  The feel of her right next to him made him shiver slightly, his hands shaking as he turned the page.  She didn't notice…thank God…

As he turned to the given page number, he honed into the half-page picture.  It showed something he had only seen a few times, glowing brightly with a soft white glow.  It was the White Materia.  The last time either of them had seen it was on that horrible day that Sephiroth murdered Aeris.  It gracefully fell out of her hair and landed deep in the waters of the City of the Ancients.  "The White Materia.  What about it?"

"Read the notes about it above the picture, that is the relevance." Nanaki became slightly dark and foreboding as he watched them read.  Tifa's brown, silky hair trailing down Cloud's muscular shoulders as Cloud's long spiky hair consistently poked her in the ribs.  They made such a cute couple, he thought to himself.  A shame they are both too stubborn to realize it.

"The White Materia was discovered long ago when the Cetra traveled the planet.  It is named for its glowing, white pulses of light.  It is the most rare of rare materia, only equaled by its predecessor, the infamous Black Materia.  The White Materia is currently not available to science due to its unbeknownst whereabouts, but gathered from ancient books, certain theories are known about its uses.  It is said to be used to summon the magical force known as Holy.  Apparently Holy has the ability to speak with the planet itself, allowing it a link through the Lifestream to perform its own will.  Little is known but this ancient crystal is said to be the only existing materia that has the power to resurrect the dead.  As the most powerful resurrection magic in the world and the only link between the natural world and the conscience of the planet, the White Materia is the ultimate verdict of the life or death of mankind." Cloud finished with a snap of the book shutting and narrowed down at the floor with his mouth slightly agape.  Tifa glanced over at Nanaki and awaited his forthcoming speech.

"This is our one and only chance of reuniting with our good friend Aeris…  Are we going to do it?" Nanaki rested on the rug and stretched out.  The two in front of him just looked at each other and back to the red wolf in front of them.

"My God.  I don't know what to say… can we really bring Aeris back from the dead?  She's been gone for so long…I mean…" Cloud stuttered slightly with his speech as he tried to make a decision.  Tifa rubbed his back with her soft palm, giving him another shudder of pleasure.  

"We're going to do this, if it's the last thing we ever do," Tifa said softly, glancing over at Nanaki.  The wolf rustled upward and scratched behind his ear swiftly with his hind leg.

"The way I look at it is, we gather Avalanche back together, take the Highwind to the Ancient City, then find Aeris' body and the White Materia.  As powerful as you have become in the past month Cloud, your magic skills combined with ours should be plenty of power to use the White Materia.  Don't you agree?" 

"Nanaki is right Cloud.  You have crossed mountains in your fighting abilities and magic abilities since we killed Seph.  You are the only one of us who has actually kept training since the final battle.  This should be very easy if you can concentrate all of your power into the spell." Tifa hugged him from the side with excitement and kissed him on the cheek.  "I can't believe we're actually bringing her back!"

"How did you just suddenly stumble upon this information Nanaki?  This is one of the most incredible things I've ever heard of, bringing people back from the dead and stuff." Cloud brought his left ankle to his right knee and opened the book back up, skimming over the pages carefully.  Nanaki sat up on his rug.

"It actually wasn't I who discovered this.  It was Vincent.  He found the book inside of Professor Hojo's desk last week.  He brought it to me a few days ago and we studied it for several hours.  I knew you were the first two I needed to get a hold of," Nanaki hopped up and walked into his 'kitchen' that was across the room.

"What was Vincent doing in Midgar?  I thought everyone moved out of Midgar to find shelter." Tifa twirled her long dark hair around one finger and gave a quick glance at Cloud who was also curious.

"You see; a lot has been happening that the news has not been letting the world know.  After the Diamond WEAPON fired upon Midgar, Rufus Shinra was 'killed' amongst the fire and debris of his office.  That wasn't entirely true though.  Vincent found out that a group of Shinra scientists rushed him to an underground lab deep beneath the infrastructure of the Headquarters.  He doesn't know if they brought him around or not, but whatever they are up to cannot be good." Nanaki took a breath and walked out of the kitchen.  "The reason Vincent went there in the first place was to help people that were trapped in the ruins.  He teamed up with Reeves to start rebuilding the city, but they happened upon this dark little secret that the scientists have cleverly kept quiet for the past month."

"We have to investigate this!  If Shinra is rebuilding itself right now we have to stop it," Cloud shot up and exclaimed, the book dropping with a thick thud on the ground.  Both looked down to it and back up to him afterwards.  The pages flicked shut as he reached down and grabbed it slowly, blue eyes focused on the tattered cover.

"The question is…are we going to save Aeris or risk making a big mistake with this Shinra ordeal?  Winter will soon be passing over the Forgotten City and the blizzards will begin moving in.  It's either one or the other, mind you that we could be too late to stop the meddling in Midgar, but if we don't hurry and find Aeris's body the ice will consume it and ruin its function ability.  The water in the city is different than most water, and will provide a protective preservation to her body, but if it freezes it will expand and crush anything within it." Nankai glanced up at Cloud again.  "So what's it gonna be."

"Why the hell do I have to be the decision maker all the time?" Cloud groaned and rubbed the back of his head with one hand.  "Okay, well we can't pass up the opportunity to save Aeris.  It's a once in a million thing so we'll go ahead and give it a try."

"Then it is set.  I will call Cid with the SAT phone and dial into Barret's PHS." Nanaki stopped.  "And one other thing that I don't want you to be surprised about…"

"What's wrong?  If it's Cid being married or whatnot, the whole world knows already." Tifa put her hands on her hips as her and Cloud arose from the couch.  Cloud cocked an eyebrow.

"It's about Vincent.  He is kind of teamed up with the Turks again.  But before you start raving, remember that they aren't a part of Shinra anymore.  They have formed they're own group like us.  Don't even try to persuade him to leave them either, it will only make him angry…and you know what happens when he gets angry…" Nanaki slightly lowered his head and walked back to his soft rug.  Cloud and Tifa both just stared at each other and shook their heads.  

"We just have to face the fact that Avalanche isn't exactly around anymore so we can't rely on everyone to stay with it," Tifa swiftly flipped her long beautiful hair back and glanced at both of them.  They only nodded.  "Well, lets get going.  We will need to stock up on equipment and stuff.  Go ahead and call Cid, Nanaki.  Tell him to swing by and pick us up in Nibelheim."


	4. Betrayal

The soft dew of morn was just beginning to caress the grass of the surrounding plains.  Still, as the morning's kiss soothed the dry vegetation, the hazy eye of fire above overlooked contently.  Soon its rays were awakening life in the poverty stricken city below.  It was a sight to behold but what showed beneath the canvass of darkness was not one of liking.  Lives were scrambled amongst the rebirth and death of what had been only a short time before.

Midgar.  It had served as both a holding cell and a heaven for many years.  Status of life all depended on where you were born and to whom you were born to.  None of that mattered now though.  Everyone was at square one again.  To bring a child into this world would be a punishment to both ends of the umbilical chord.  No one was safe by law, and no one had rights over anything but the clothes on they're back and the weapon in their hand.  This was the aftermath of the destruction of Midgar.

Most of the city had been rebuilt, but places like sector 7 were coming along slowly.  Urban Development crews had managed to pull the plate back up and bound it to the infrastructure, but the masses of rotting corpses provided a very serious public health hazard.  Everyone and everything had been destroyed in the crash of Sector 7.  So many thousands of innocent lives had been taken at the hands of Shinra Incorporated.  They had the nerve to blame it on the only people that actually did have a good cause, Avalanche.  

Overall, the sectors and reconstruction were crossing mountains.  It was thanks to him though.  Rufus didn't care about anyone but himself.  Reeves got up from his seat at the train station.  All the hard work he had done over the past month to help the lives of Midgar's citizens; it was all for nothing.  Rufus cared for no one but himself.  Even some of his own friends and crewmembers had rejoined Shinra after Rufus took control back.  Sickening.  Everything went the wrong way.

The streets were still dark.  A light breeze lifted the heavy air of the sector one train station.  The smell of mako, through its years of use, was still noticeable amongst the area.  Thank god Rufus hadn't turned on the reactors again.  That would destroy everything that Avalanche had worked so hard for.  Through the cirrus clouds, high above, the sun was beginning to peer over the edge of the horizon.  Reeves glanced at each end of the subway tunnel and put his hands in the pockets of his black tuxedo.  The light breeze laced through his short, black hair like thousands of ghostly hands but he defiantly did not turn from it.  

"How am I going to explain all of this to the others?" Reeves slicked his goatee down and glanced up at the invading sunlight.  "I single-handedly rebuilt Shinra, and somehow or another get no credit for any of it…  This is it…  Shinra is going to pay for all of this…"

The train's bellowing horn hissed in the distance, getting louder as its presence became nearer.  The hissing fire of the brakes screeched for almost a thousand feet before finally stopping at the embankment of the docking area.  Reeves picked up his silver briefcase…the one from Professor Hojo's office, and boarded the bullet like train awaiting his arrival.  A slight smirk played across his face as he glanced out the window and up at the massive Shinra Headquarters.  The Turks were all waiting for him like he had requested.  Sitting in perfect silence in the seats across from him…

Everything was black.  The sounds of animals brushing around in the darkness would have frightened a man that didn't know how to fight but Sephiroth was far from that.  He walked casually through the darkness, his mako enhanced eyes easily making they're way through the opaque atmosphere of the woods.  He wanted a fight.  He needed something to check his skills in on.  It didn't seem like there was anything that would attack him in these woods but he knew there was something ferocious somewhere.

He pushed around through the thickets and trees for close to an hour before coming to a large clearing.  It was easily one hundred feet wide by two hundred feet long.  Nothing seemed to move within the clearing but he sensed that there was something there.  "Sense…"

He held the handle of his sword up for the yellow light of his sense materia to react.  The light responded with a message in his mind.  The orb sensed something large but could not identify it.  He glanced over his shoulder, beautiful silver hair lightly caressing his handsome face.  What was it, he thought to himself.  A sharp vibration thudded under his feet suddenly, reiterating itself several more times within the span of ten seconds.  Sephiroth froze, his senses instantly searching everything around him.  It was twenty yards away, at least forty thousand pounds and likely around sixty feet tall judging from the time span between steps.  The vibrations ended…right behind him.  The ex-SOLDIER swiftly whirled around and unsheathed his Masamune.  He gripped the hilt and held the long, curved blade in front of him.  What his, currently, blue eyes took in was from a nightmare.

Standing about twenty feet away was, as he expected, a sixty foot tall, several thousand pound creature.  It was not what he had expected, and it sure wasn't something that he really wanted to fight.  But, he had went out looking for trouble and now he had found it, and in a larger amount than he had anticipated.  Suddenly, images flashed through his mind.  They were images of catastrophe and destruction.  It seemed that he was watching from above.  It was this same monster, trudging out of the ocean and towards Midgar.  Some people intervened for a brief few minutes.  They looked very familiar but he couldn't place who they were exactly because they were so far away.  They survived the battle but did not come even close to scratching the beast's thick gray armor-skin.  The monster turned towards the city slowly and just stared.

The deep red eyes of the hulking beast seemed angry, vengeful.  Its body was so large that it seemed that it was just another small mountain.  Its huge, clawed feet seemed to clamp to the planets surface like two giant leaches.  The beast stared for several minutes before, almost mechanically, folding back the armor on its shoulders to reveal magical laser cannons.  They glowed brightly with a yellow light before blasting simultaneously towards the massive structure of Midgar.  The rays of light crashed with the infrastructure violently, creating mass destruction to several floors of the Shinra Headquarters.  But, just as the opposing blasts impacted upon Midgar, the Sister Ray, which had somehow been moved to Midgar, made its own attack, killing the creature and destroying a large chunk of Northern Crater.

"What are you…" Sephiroth muttered as he stepped back a few paces.  The giant monster screamed a hellacious roar of anger and charged forward with more speed than the much smaller man had expected.  Sephiroth dove to the side with blinding speed and rolled to evade the crashing claw that attempted to smash him.  A large crater, in the shape of the creatures foot was indented into the ground.  The versatile young man did several back-flips and landed perfectly with his blade ready to defend.  He knew he didn't stand a chance with his sword, but he had enough magic to possibly stun the monster.  He veered his hand back, magical power beginning to swell around it, and slowly squeezed his palm shut as the monstrosity lurched at him again.  The swordsman leapt thirty feet into the air and released the magical energy into the monster's frame with a shout of "Lightning Three!"

I giant lightning bolt fired out of Sephiroth's black palm and collided with the creature along with several more from above.  As he landed, he had to dive away and roll as the beast came tumbling down from the stunning attack.  Sephiroth quickly cast the Sense spell again and leapt onto the monster's back, slicing its armored skin deeply with his sleek katana blade.  The powerful sword didn't even draw blood, but he didn't care as the monster shot up quickly and thrashed about to get him off.  The sense spell returned with a message that only read the word 'WEAPON'.  "…oh, you have got to be kidding me!"

The beast came roaring after him like a rabies- infected pack of wolves on a three- legged cat.  The small man below, while actually quite built compared to a normal person, did several back-flips to avoid the attacking nemesis ahead.  Upon the foothold of the last flip, Sephiroth jumped several feet into the air and sliced several times faster than the eye could see.  The monster's armor was just too thick to penetrate though and he soon found his sword to be absolutely useless to him.  WEAPON batted the young man out of the air and began to charge its super-weapon, a large beam that fired from the ruby inlayed at its chest.

"Ahh-uh," the ex-SOLDIER cried out as he hit the ground hard.  His head hit a rock and instantly sprayed blood from his forehead.  He got hit, he thought to himself.  He hadn't gotten hit this hard since his days in Second and First Class.  That really hurt, he thought, annoyed by the pain in his head.  He arose to his feet, shaken a bit and slightly staggered.  He could feel the mako in his body instantly treating the wound, but something else stirred within him and began channeling him strength.  "Limit Break?"

The magical red light began to encase his body, filling him with unbound strength.  He hadn't had a limit break for so long…this was his chance to really show this monster who was boss.  Within seconds he had retrieved his blade from the ground and was ready to attack.  WEAPON was just reaching the final stage of his charge up and was just getting ready to eradicate the man when a flash erupted from below.  

"Requiem of Darkness," Sephiroth whispered.  His silver hair fanned out around him angelically as he began to soar higher and higher into the air.  The world around the WEAPON and him shed its woodland texture and was slowly pervaded by a black so deep that it seemed to annihilate any and all rays of light.  All sounds became silent as two feathery, black angel wings burst from Sephiroth's back, shredding his leather coat.  The Masamune slowly began to crystallize into a beautiful translucence, which closely resembled diamond, beginning to glow with a red light as he soared higher near the monster's face.  Raising the crystalline blade into the air, the dark, angelic form of the silver haired swordsman suddenly blurred downward.  The wings tucked in closely to his back as he dove towards WEAPON with his powerful katana.  Within a split second he had carved a giant vertical gash in his nemesis's head, landing to the ground and returning to his normal, humanly stature.  

WEAPON screamed in fury as blood and gore gushed out of the giant gap between his eyes.  The Masamune had easily cut through the thick armored skin.  Sephiroth shook the weariness of the magic pervading from his body and glanced up to see the monster swinging ferociously to hit him.  One giant claw came very close but he had barely enough time to leap out of the way and make a quick run.  The monstrous WEAPON came crashing to the ground dead only moments later.  Sephiroth slumped against a nearby tree, breathing heavily from the hellacious battle moments ago.  "Damn that was tough.  I don't know if I'm losing my edge or getting better, but that thing was strong.  What's going on…now?"

Where the body of the dead beast lay, the ground began to shake violently.  Tremors rushed into the corpse from all directions until finally a giant column of Lifestream burst from the ground and consumed the mass of dead weight.  Slowly, little by little, the dead monstrosity was disintegrated into nothingness.  All that was left afterwards was a slowly submerging pool of Lifestream.  Sephiroth ran his hand through his hair after sheathing his blade and took a breath, his deep blue-green eyes glowing in the shadows around him.  The moon shown brightly through the trees above, glaring off of the bright mako pool a few feet ahead of him.  

Walking up to the pool he kneeled down and examined it.  The glowing green fascinated him as he reached into its warmth.  The tendrils of green instantly caressed around his gloved fingers like tiny fish, fascinated by the gentle life-form above.  Images of the past suddenly began striking through his memory, his voice crying out with each flash of light and every faint voice.  He fell…fell deep into the soothing, warm pool in front of him.  His eyes fluttered shut as the images continued to fly by his pupils.  His whole body seemed to give into the warm liquid around him, arms and hair flailing out carelessly as if unconscious.  Then the blackness overwhelmed his senses and he found himself spiraling into oblivion.

It was just like before, when he had woken up on his little island of despair, deep into the fathomless abyss of nothingness.  Voices seemed to haunt his every thought, yet they were in faint tongues that even he, a man fluent in all four languages, could not understand.  Unlike before though, the whispers were not harsh and did not threaten him.  Everything became silent as he suddenly felt like he was waking up.  It was such a strange feeling that he couldn't describe it, yet it alls seemed strangely familiar…like déjà vu.

As he opened his eyes, he found himself lying upon a large rock in the middle of an endless sea of blue and green.  There were many other large rocks placed miscellaneously around his own stone, each one haunted with graphic images that were too blurry to identify.  Many seemed welcoming, many seemed uninviting.  It appalled him so much that he began walking in circles trying to gather all the images in his mind.  Then he looked up.  To the young man's shock there was a figure that resembled him greatly.  The dark figure rolled and twisted in the air, contorting in painful ways.  What was this place he thought to himself.

Stepping over the small stepping-stones between the first island, Sephiroth stood before the flickering light before him.  Something inside of him just seemed to scream at him to go into the light…and with only a few second's hesitation, he stepped through.  Where his feet led him was straight into the past…a past he could not remember, for he was too young.  He watched in amazement as the seemingly three dimensional movie played by him…

_"Dear?  What are we going to name him," asked the soothing voice of what seemed to be his mother.  Clouds of haze covered up everything that would have identified the woman who obviously was his mother.  Another figure entered the scene to answer the question.  His voice was young, at about the same age as the woman.  He seemed to have long, dark hair with white clothes.  Whoever the figure was had to be his father, he thought to himself.  _

_"This is your choice my dear.  You may name him as you please." _

_"I will call him…Sephiroth," the soft voice replied moments later._

_"Seph-iroth," the young man's voice asked, puzzled._

_"Sephiroth.  It means 'Seraphim' in Wutain.  His shiny hair and bright blue eyes remind me of an angel…a seraph.  Seraphim are powerful, noble angels of heaven.  He will be a great man of Shinra one day…" the woman began to sway slightly as the words left her mouth.  Sephiroth walked past they're blurry images and peered into the glass room they were staring into.  His heart seemed to pause a beat.  It was him, curled into the fetal position in a small crib.  Soft strands of silver hair protruded from his little head, which lay upon a blue blanket beneath him.  His attention was diverted as his mother began to fall, but was caught by the dark man.  He carried her out of the room just as the dream world began to fade away.  _

"Wow…  What was that all about," the ex-SOLDIER asked himself as he woke up outside on the center island once again.  He shook off the weariness and headed towards the next dream world, glancing above once more to see himself still in anguish.  As he stepped through the portal, the still not quite familiar blast of memories greeted him with open arms.  What came to his attention when he first entered the portal was shockingly familiar, yet something that he had long forgotten…a memory carried away in the abyss of time.  

_"You're a freak Sephy!  We hate freaks like you!  Why don't you go braid your hair with the other girls you fagget!" The voice of a young kid in his early teens mocked and scolded at him, others behind the boy laughing and jeering him on._

He stepped out of the way, and to his fascination, where he had just been standing, was a child version of himself.  His long hair went down to his elbows and his eyes glowed just like they did now.  It was appalling what he was seeing.  Whether it be a hallucination, a nightmare, or reality, it portrayed the truth…he listened and watched further.  With each bout of comments and remarks, the young Sephiroth seemed to become more and more rigid.  His fists clenched, wringing tightly until the white of the bone beneath his skin could be seen.  The tattoo of the roman numeral one couldn't have stood out more…

_"What are you gonna do?  Beat me up?  I dare ya Sephy!" The mean child sneered down at the younger one.  Sephiroth looked up at him, pupils narrowed to small slivers of black, jaw clenched tightly.  He stared at him for a few moments before shaking his head and walking away. _

_"It would be foolish of me to do such a thing.  SOLDIERs are supposed to be in control of they're emotions…  No…I won't try and beat you up.  Leave me alone…"_

The words echoed through his mind…

"Leave me alone…"

"Leave me alone…"

"Leave me alone…"

"Leave me alone……….."

The three dimensional movie suddenly ended and Sephiroth found himself lying on the ground, sprawled out on the center island as if he had fallen from the heavens.  He slowly pulled upward and sat Indian style with his hands over his face.  Arched over himself he began to careen slowly…  "Just leave me alone…"

"What?  I was just passing through here and saw you…  But if you really don't want any help…" a new voice found its way into his ears as Sephiroth leapt to his feet and jumped back.  His initial instinct was to reach for his sword but he sensed no danger in the voice, therefore he halted.  What his eyes took in was an elder man with white hair and a puffy tuft of at his chin.  He was dressed in a blue button up shirt with a tattered pair of blue jeans.  They had been worn so long that the deep indigo had faded to a fuzzy white.  "My lord boy, those eyes of yours…why are you here?"

"What do mean?" Sephiroth's long black eyelashes fluttered for a second in obvious tension.  A light breeze cut through the trees around them and rustled the loose clothing of both men.  They both looked up.  He just realized that he had woken up from the dream world.

"A storm is a brewin' son, we better get on out of here fore' the beasts start feedin'." The old man started off.  He was by no means fragile.  He seemed as tough as an oak tree as he made his way easily through the forest.  "Where be you headed son?"

"Miss Gainsborough's place.  I'm new here and she is helping me adjust…to…the changes…" Sephiroth glanced around uneasily… the old man obviously sensed something wrong because he stopped and focused directly on him.  His wise old eyes studied him until they came upon the black katana at his hip.

"Who are ye may I ask?" 

"Sephiroth…  I am a Shinra Officer in SOLDIER…"

"I know who you are…you killed a bunch o' people before you died didn't you?  News spreads around like crazy about what's happening over there…" The old man continued to walk as Sephiroth sped up to catch up with him.

"What?  You know me?  How…"

"You were, after all, the person who sent Miss Gainsborough here.  News journalists rush to get new stories from the new immigrants.  Before you know it you have a life story on everybody in the world.  Its crazy but its life.  Hate to say it but you don't have too great of a reputation in these parts."

"I'm still finding this a little hard to believe.  This planet that we're on is exactly like the one I just came from that I 'lived my whole life on'?  How is it possible?" Sephiroth shook his head as he walked through the woods, soon coming to the edge of them.  The old man sighed.

"In reality this place is no different.  Where we are standing right now there is probably a mako reactor in that other dimension.  This is a more natural world than that place, and doesn't have all the fake stuff that makes a 'lifestyle'.  Here you live off the fat o' the land, not artificially flavored microwave dinners.  It's a reality that few really get a chance to live.  You're a lucky man, Sephiroth."

Sephiroth remained silent.  Aeris's house stood like a small pillar of light in the middle of the darkness.  The old man gave a little salute and headed his own way.  "See ya around Mr. Sephiroth, and good luck adapting to a normal lifestyle…"

"Goodbye…" Sephiroth walked towards the house.  The first drops of rain began falling from the black sky as he headed up the small steps.  He looked at the dampening ground and then back up to the sky.  Lightning flashed like a blade through the sky, echoing its thunder in his perceptive ears, and reflecting sharply off of his frame.  He rapped lightly on the door and awaited a reply.  The soft, soothing voice of innocence welcomed his ears again, and as he took it in, he realized that he liked the sound of her voice very much…  The rain began to pound harder from the sky…

"Who is it?"

"…Sephiroth…"

"I don't know if I want to let you in.  You just kinda walked off and left me here…that was kinda mean, ya know?" Aeris sounded like she was enjoying it but she realized that she was talking to someone who didn't joke around too often.

"…Okay…" Sephiroth instantly agreed and began walking away into the wet tempest of black.  He was soaked within seconds.  The giant drops of rain dripped across his bare chest and into the long black coat.  The light from inside suddenly glared out in the shape of a long rectangle as the door creaked open.  Sephiroth never stopped.

"I was just joking you know.  You can come inside…" Aeris' small, girlish figure careened against the open doorway as he turned around.  The blue hue of his eyes struck her, even from the distance.  She had changed her clothes and was now wearing a white night gown that looked like it was made of pure silk.  She motioned for him to come in and waited for him at the door.  When he finally reached the door she sighed and put her hands on her hip.  "And there you went and got all wet, and what the heck happened to your forehead, it looks like you got beat up."

"You have no idea…" 

"Well, tell me about it while I get you fixed up, eh?" Aeris shut the door as he stepped through and locked it tightly with several bolts.  It seemed a little over protective but after what he just saw, he didn't blame her in the least.  As he took in the surroundings he noticed a hot fire burning in the fireplace and the aroma of coffee in the air.  It was a combination of smells that he had not known for years…

"I went into the woods and explored for a little while until I came to a big clearing."  Aeris reached around his waist and unlatched the small silver buckle around his abdomen.  She blushed slightly but proceeded to pull the soaked coat off of him and hang it up.  She hadn't realized how heavy it really was with the shoulder armor attached to it.  As she turned to him she was almost taken back.  Something jumped inside of her when she laid eyes on his wet, muscular upper torso.  His hair was soaked and fell down his back and trailed his face in long, thick strands.  Each thick strand resembled a silver blade it seemed to her.  He still had the leather straps crisscrossed over his chest and back, connected tightly to the metal SOLDIER belt around his stomach.  The large belt connected to his black fighting pants, which fit loosely above his knees.  They were tucked inside of his combat boots from his knees down and dripped with wetness.  "I got attacked by a large creature called WEAPON and it got a good lick in on me before I took it out."

Aeris' eyes bulged slightly but she didn't express it with words.  "Oh, wow, you…beat a WEAPON?  How did you do that," she asked as she headed into the bathroom to fetch him a towel.  Sephiroth walked over to the fire and knelt down next to it.

"It wasn't easy.  It probably would have killed me if I hadn't limited so quickly.  I'm not sure if I'm getting better or worse.  I haven't been hit that bad for a long time…" Sephiroth trailed off as he gazed into the burning embers.  Images flew through his mind of burning houses and…even humans.  He shook the thoughts away hastily as a fluffy white towel laid across his shoulders.  Aeris quickly pulled the small couch over near the fire place for them to sit on and added her piece to the conversation.

"You must be pretty darn good if you killed a WEAPON.  I don't know a single person who has ever defeated it.  You really amaze me Sephy." Aeris huddled up on her side of the couch as Sephiroth sat on the other end, drying himself as not to get the furniture wet.

"What did you just call me," he asked, glancing over at the younger girl.  She blushed slightly, glancing towards the warm fire a couple feet in front of them.

"Sorry, it just kinda came out…"

"Okay Aeri…" Sephiroth smirked slightly.

"What did you just call me?  Did The Great Sephiroth just let a joke slip?" Aeris gently threw a pillow at him from the small distance away.  Sephiroth caught it easily and set it down between them.

"I may be a serious person but I do have a slight sense of humor…"

"Wow, I'm kinda shocked.  I remember the first time I met you with Zack.  You were so stern.  It was around the end of the Wutai war," Aeris glanced at him slightly as she stared into the fireplace.  Her slender fingers kneaded at a loose thread on her gown, almost nervously.  Sephiroth sat in silence as she spoke, taking in every last detail of the small inferno before him.

"I was pretty young back then, only eighteen when I became… well, you know," Sephiroth trailed off slightly.  He didn't like to talk about how famous he was, and certainly hated talking about his accomplishments.  People often labeled him as a stuck up, or arrogant.  In reality he wasn't.  He was just very successful.  "I think I was really busy the day we met.  I was working on an important air strike operation if I remember correctly.  The other generals had kind of dumped the whole project on me and I was a little ticked off.  Sorry if I was less than appealing."

"I was too young to really care anyway.  I remember all the other girls in town were so giddy over you, though.  You were loved by so many, even at such a young age.  After all, any First Class SOLDIER was a celebrity."  Aeris paused for a moment.  "That was why I was so hung on Zack at the time.  He was an actual First Classman and he liked me."

"Him and I had some good times.  We went on a lot of missions together.  He was even a big help just before Shinra took out Wutai.  Then we went on the Nibelheim mission.  That was when everything went to Hell.  Everything after we went to that reactor is a blur.  Sometimes I get faint visions of what I did, but they disappear before I can grasp them." Sephiroth became silent.

"You don't have to talk about that.  It's in the past and it wasn't really you who did all those horrible things.  Believe it or not though, there are very few people who actually knew that it was you terrorizing the world.  You still have many 'fans' on the other side." Aeris smiled, glancing over at him.  Deep down inside she was excited at the fact that she was able to tell him all these things.  "After you were stated 'missing in action' all those years ago, you know, by the Shinra press or whatever, there were a lot of people who thought you were still alive.  People figured that you had run away from Shinra and lived on an island somewhere."

"That's pretty crazy.  I don't know why people liked me so much.  I hardly ever gave public speeches, and its not like I was the president or something…" Sephiroth smiled briefly but it faded within moments.  He was always so…dry…

"You were so famous with people because you protected them.  You're a strong leader, and you're dang good looking too.  People…like…that…" Aeris turned red instantly.  Sephiroth looked over at her with a smirk on his face.  Aeris burst into laughter.  He turned a little red but acted like he didn't hear it.  

Aeris hopped up from the couch and stretched out, obviously over her embarrassment.  Her fairly short gown pulled up just enough for him to see her thigh.  She didn't notice it, but it was all he could look at out the corner of his eye.  For the first time he realized that Aeris Gainsborough had a damn nice body…but he quickly tossed that thought away.  

"Okay, well I'm going to bed, it's late.  Looks like your sleeping on the couch cause' I've only got one bed.  Sorry." Aeris smiled at him and walked back to the room he had woken up in earlier that day.  Sephiroth gave a slight glance in her direction as she fled to her quarters and leaned back, stretching his arms out behind him.  After a few moments of staring into the burning logs before him, he dozed off…


	5. A Breath of Life

The air was cold around the lake in the Forgotten Capital.  It didn't help that Cloud was soaking wet either.  It had taken him well over an hour to find the White Materia within the Ancient City.  It was a long swim to the bottom due to the unexplainable rise of the water, but he managed to find it and return safely.  The SOLDIER uniform he wore was waterproof but he was still human and could feel every draft that swept through the small capital.

Cloud careened Aeris' head in his hand as he focused all his energy into the White Materia.  The spell just didn't seem to have an effect.  Tifa, shivering and crying, clung to Barret tightly as the young blonde haired man worked.  Barret just looked at the ground, upset.  Cid had already walked off, puffing on a cigarette indifferently.  "God damn it!  Just fucking work!" 

Just as the words left his mouth, bright crimson gushed out of Aeris' stomach.  Tifa gasped, along with Barret, who took a short step forward.  Cloud froze, he wasn't quite sure what to do.  Was she alive, or had the spell only triggered blood flow from her original wound?  Barret knelt down and grabbed the small girl's wrist.  He looked up with a chuckle and patted Cloud on the back  "Nice job spike head.  We just gotta clear this wound up before she bleeds to death!"

"I have a Cure materia here but it's only at level two.  Let me try it out," Tifa moved around Barret's large frame and focused her energy into the spell.  A tentacle of green seemed to rise up from the ground and consume Aeris' body for a brief two seconds as the spell did its' job.  The blood stopped flowing as the green rays disappeared, but the actual wound persisted to stay.  Cloud quickly doused an X-Potion over the unconscious girl's body.  The wound healed up lightly, leaving only a small scratch where once a gaping sword wound had been inflicted.

"She finally came around?  Excellent work, now lets get her butt out of here before she freezes to death, eh," Cid tossed his cigarette to the side and pulled off his flight jacket.  It was cold but he had been in worse conditions than this before.  Cloud wrapped the smoke saturated jacket around the pink clad girl and zipped it up to her chin.  She was soaked thoroughly from her long rest in the strange lake.  The odd waters had kept her body in perfect condition.  He figured it was just something to do with the sacred ground of the City of the Ancients.  Barret stopped Cloud as he was about to lift her off the ground and did it himself.  

"Your tired, just work on getting yo' spiky ass back to the airship." Barret cradled the smaller body in his arms as Cloud nodded reluctantly.  Barret's dark eyes sensed a feeling of insecurity in Cloud's.  This is going to be hard for the kid to deal with, Barret thought to himself.

The walk back was more atrocious than the walk to the Ancient City.  The snow was already almost a foot high within the hour and a half they had been gone.  They all knew that danger lurked in blizzards, keeping a close eye in every direction they could.  The stinging of the crystal wind was almost too much to bear as they trekked over ice fields and deep snow embankments, but the venturing would be worth it once they got to the ship.  

"Something's not right," Cloud interrupted as they were nearing the silver airship about thirty yards away.  He slowly unsheathed his huge Buster Sword from the magnetic strip on his back.  The dark metal of the giant blade gleamed against the snowy field below.  I sense more than five people here…something like…nine.  You guys hurry and get Aeris back to the ship."

"What?" Cid turned.  Just as he laid eyes on Cloud, several pockets of snow burst up and sprayed everywhere.  Four giant wolves, three times the size of Nanaki, crashed to the ground behind them.  

"Go!  Now," Cloud shouted as he veered his blade and ran at the first snow wolf.  Cid and Barret both made a break for it, Cid guarding Barret with his Venus Gospel Spear.  Tifa leapt right into the brawl with Cloud.  As soon as he saw her out of the corner of his eye he was infuriated.  He wanted her out of harms way.  "I thought I told you to run!"

"I'm not leaving you out here alone, I don't know what I'd do if I lost you!" Tifa shouted back as she concentrated on a Fire Three spell.  The entire area seemed to melt instantly.  The flames seemed to dodge both of them but burnt the four Bandersnatch wolves that were moving in.  Cloud followed up the brilliant display of magic with several combinations of expert sword maneuvers.  His wide blade left gaping lacerations on the furry skin of the hungry beasts.  Two went to the ground quickly in a screaming mass of spewing blood and gnashing teeth, but the other two were still unharmed it seemed.  Cloud shook his head and pulled a small green orb from his pocket. 

"Flare," he whispered softly.  He and Tifa instantly bolted for the ship.  They didn't even turn to watch as a concentrated ball of superheated energy exploded and incinerated the wolves.  The blast of heat rushed into the ship as the docking ramp slowly closed.  Cloud and Tifa exasperatedly sunk to the wet, rubber floor to catch they're breath.  The rest of the team was already on the above floor tending to Aeris.  Tifa rolled over and hugged Cloud tightly.  He wasn't exactly sure how to react so he put his arm around her.  "Was what you said earlier true?"

"Yes…" Tifa wiped a small chunk of snow off of Clouds chest and got up.  "Lets go see Aeris.  Maybe she's awake now."

"...Yeah…Lets go see her…"

Meanwhile, deep within the caverns of Gaia's Cliff, life was stirring.  Massive chunks of materia laid everywhere amongst the debris of the collapsed cave.  Though the darkness was thick inside the remains of the, once great, crater, the gentle glow of mako was everywhere.  The green and blue of the shimmering crystals left little uncovered, but in a dark corner of the wreckage two glowing, green eyes flickered open.  The tiny amount of light, magnified through the crystal it was contained in, lit that portion of the cave just enough to reveal a human being.  The materia slowly began to crack as the man stirred.  After several minutes of trying to break out of the diamond like prison, he finally grew annoyed and cast a Destruct spell around him.  The shield of magic quickly shattered most of the hard crystal off of his body.  As his head was freed from the mold he gasped desperately for air.  The chill of the air greeted his bare skin for the first time in five years.  Gentle gusts bellowed through the caverns making eerily groaning echoes of they're travels as the long haired man finished picking all of the shards off of his body.  

"I'm alive…but how did I end up here?  So cold…" The black fighting pants he wore, and the tall boots on his feet were all that was there to protect him from the dangerously cold temperature.  Otherwise, there was nothing but his sword on the ground.  He knelt down to free it from the cold crystal and attached it's black sheath to his hip.  "I guess I should find a way out of here…"

The tall man climbed swiftly through the masses of rocks and material only to find more of it ahead of him.  Several minutes passed by as he steadily walked through the winding tunnels and debris.  He didn't seem discouraged as he made his way into more and more catacombs.  The cold of the air was his guide.  "I suppose I'll just head towards the colder gusts of wind.  Surely they are blowing from the outside."

Over a half hour passed by and the temperature had dropped by at least twenty degrees.  He had been digging around in a mass of gravelly materia debris for most of that time until he leapt up onto a ledge about fifteen feet above him.  A heavy gale of freezing wind greeted him.  This must be the source of all those cold breezes, he thought to himself.  As he opened his eyes from the stinging snow and ice he was relieved to see a distant light.  He quickened his pace down the long corridor of ice and snow until he was stopped by an odd sense of movement.  His hand instantly reached for the handle of his Masamune katana…  The instant the movement of his hand reached the black handle eight giant wolves leapt out of the debris and landed around him in ambush formation.  "…Damn…"

The first three wolves leapt at him for the kill from his back.  Quickly he leapt into the air and kicked the nearest in the face with the heel of his boot.  The curved blade of his sword followed through and severed the creature's head off in one slice.  The other two landed within inches from him, leaving just enough time for him to decapitate them.  The true attack came when the remaining five infuriated wolves rushed him at once.  The stinking gray fur seemed to surround him instantly.  Several claws thrashed at his flesh leaving a few ripped wounds.  He slashed the nearest wolf across the shoulder, taking off its leg, and with several lightening quick combinations, slaughtered the last four.  They didn't even have enough time to see they're wounds before they were dead.  "That wasn't too bad…" 

The Highwind III glided softly through the air.  It was so high that the clouds were right beneath it.  Cloud and Tifa were silently sitting on the bottom level of the large ship, gazing endlessly through the floor window.  Every once in awhile the clouds would part, allowing just enough time to see the beautiful landscape below.  The ship was on a cruise control route to Rocket Town.  The scenery from the City of the Ancients to Cid's hometown was absolutely fabulous, and the two were thoroughly enjoying the trip.  It had been awhile since they were able to just sit down and talk, and laugh, and just have a good time.  

"I hope Aeris comes out of this okay.  We did after all bring her back from the dead.  Imagine the psychological complications that could occur," Tifa leaned against Cloud as she starred into the clouds below them.  Cloud put his arm around her shoulder.  It felt so good to touch her…and be touched by her.  He had never realized his desperate attraction to her so vividly.

"I'm sure she'll be okay.  I don't think we should tell her that she was dead though.  It might mess her up a little." Cloud stroked Tifa's long dark hair with his left hand.  "I'm giving her two days to recover before we head into Midgar.  I hope nothing has happened there yet.  It's been a month since we've heard anything from anyone there."

"What do you plan on doing about it if Shinra really has got that place running again," Tifa asked quietly.  Cloud paused for a few minutes.

"We're going to bust in there, find that bastard Rufus and force him to step down." Cloud put the point plain and bold.  Tifa shrugged, but agreed.  Cloud gazed down at her as she nestled her head into his abdomen.  She was so…cute, he thought to himself.  

"Cloud, if you could do anything right now, what would it be?"

"Go back in time…" he muttered.  It wasn't the answer she had hoped for but it sufficed long enough to keep her attention.

"What would you do…or change?" she asked tiredly.  There was a long pause as he thought about his reply.  For a second, Tifa didn't think he was going to answer her.

"I would make sure Sephiroth didn't go to Nibelheim.  So…none of this would have ever happened." Cloud sighed.  She felt his body tense up at the SOLDIER's name.  That always happened, she thought to herself.  She could always tell when Cloud was thinking about Sephiroth.  His body would tense up, or he would start to sweat.  Cloud knew in particular what Sephiroth was capable of.  She did too, but she didn't really remember much from that night at the reactor.  He had cut her so quickly and hard that she went out like a light.  Cloud however…he would never forget the feel of that katana blade, buried in his chest, slowly lifting him off the ground.  Cloud would never forget that moment…Sephiroth.

"Kill him, you mean?" Tifa opened her eyes and looked up at him, innocently held in his arms.  

"No…I'd save him.  He didn't used to be a bad guy.  He was a very likeable and respectable person.  People thought he was arrogant because he was so quite, or because he had such high standards from his men.  It was those qualities that made him the best, and he truly was the best, at everything he ever did.  He was much better than I am or could ever be.  I honestly don't even know how I managed to kill him." Cloud paused.  Tifa was shocked that he was actually able to calmly talk about his nemesis.  Usually he went off the wall about how much he hated him, but for a change he was telling what Sephiroth was like before he went mad.  "Hmm…it's kinda weird now that I think about it.  He could have snapped my neck in about a hundred ways with his pinky, but for some reason it was like he let me throw him over the edge."

"Maybe he forgot his skills and stuff after he went crazy…you think?" Tifa didn't really know what to say.  It did seem kind of odd what Cloud was talking about.

"I don't know.  If I could go back though, I would tell him the truth about what his mother.  Who am I kidding though?  I didn't even know what Jenova was back then-  He was cut off sharply by Barret's baritone voice from above the hangar.

"Gitcho asses up here.  We got Aeris in a bed now."

_______________________________________________________________________________________

The feral wind bit at his skin like thousands of tiny piranha, but he kept on track through the frozen field of snow.  It was so cold, he thought to himself, almost as cold as death…but why had that thought occurred to him?  He brushed the strange feeling off and moved onward.  He had walked for probably ten miles through eight feet of snow, but the snow was so frozen that he had been able to walk right over top of it.  Now his travels had led him in the direction of a giant skeleton in the distance.  "That must be old Bone Village.  I haven't been there since I was like nine years old." 

            He walked over the slippery, dry snow, getting closer and closer to the excavation site.  Several huge skeletons loomed over the village, even visible from the distance he was at.  The villagers had made the giant bones into houses over the years.  No one really left or moved into the village, so there was no need to actually build homes.  Everyone just worked together, digging day in and day out, blowing up layers of rock.  Some of the most amazing findings in history had been dug up by the people of Bone Village.  The tired, battered man was almost to the back entrance of the small town when he saw his first human being in what seemed like eternity.  He quickened his pace and was walking through the back entrance within minutes.  

            "Dude, you're the great Sephiroth!" A teenage kid in a green shirt and blue, tattered shorts instantly recognized him.  He hadn't expected to be so quickly recognized as the kid ran up to him and gazed.  "I knew you weren't dead for the past few years!  Shinra is a bunch of liars man!"

            "So they said I was dead," Sephiroth asked, casually resting his hand on the butt of his sword.  The kid nodded, staring intently at the curved sword at his side.  His dark brown hair rustled in the breeze as the much taller man gazed around.  The chill reminded him that he was still shirtless.  "Do you know where I could get a shirt at?"

            "Sure man!  Follow me!" The kid turned on a heel and quickly walked over to the ledge and climbed down a ladder.  Sephiroth simply leapt off the ledge and met him at the bottom.  The kid was once again amazed.  It was kind of nice to have such a devout fan…

            The people in the village all stopped what they were doing and stared at him as he followed the kid.  Many people had shocked looks on they're faces and many instantly ran to get a pen and paper.  Before he knew it, the whole village was crowded around him asking questions, marveling, and just itching for an autograph.  This all brought back fond memories of working with Shinra.

            "Are you really the real Sephiroth?" Asked one villager. 

            "In the flesh." He answered.

            "Where have you been all these years?" Asked another villager.  He smiled slightly before he answered.

            "I decided to leave Shinra for a little while and move into the mountains.  But my vehicle broke down about fifty miles back and I had to walk to this town.  I've been taking a vacation in the mountains for the past few years…" 

            "The whole world thought you were dead!  Shinra posted an obituary in the Shinra News stating that you had been killed in action!" Several villagers got autographs as he slowly made his way to the house near the entrance of the town.  The kid who was guiding him was frantically pushing people out of the way so he could get through.  Eventually he pulled him into the house and shut the door.  People pounded on the door for a few minutes before giving up and heading back to there digs, or otherwise talk about what just happened.

            "Bobby, what the hell's going on?" An elder man in his late fifties walked into the room.  He stared at the silver haired swordsman in his doorway curiously before recognizing him.  "By golly your one o' them Shinra boys…Seraph!  One o' them real high ranked fellas aren't ya not?"

            "Yes sir.  I'm Sephiroth.  I left Shinra awhile back to live in the mountains, but-" Sephiroth was cutoff short.

            "Oh, you don't have to tell me your business on why you left em'.  Celebrities are publicized enough as it is.  I know you prolly have had to tell that story a million times to everyone and your prolly sick o' it by now." The older man patted him on the back and guided him into the next room.  "So what is it Bobby an' I can help ye with?"

            "Well, I really need a shirt.  And…maybe you could tell me when the next ship to Midgar will be coming in?" Sephiroth rubbed the back of his, still numb, neck.  His muscles were tired from the strenuous walk down the mountain.  A few bloody claw scratches could still be seen on his chest and arms.  The wounds had frozen before his mako abilities could heal them thoroughly.  The elder man noticed them and nodded.  

            "Looks like you been through hell n' back.  Go on back and take a shower and clean them wounds up.  I'll get you a shirt in just a minute." The elder man smiled and patted him on the back.  He was shocked at how frozen his skin was.  

            "Thank you sir." Sephiroth bowed slightly as the man left them room to fetch him a shirt.  The boy led him to the bathroom in the back and showed him where everything was at.  Sephiroth closed the door after he left and turned on the shower.  As he stripped down, the heat of the water soothed his nearly frozen body.  The only thing he could think about though was getting back to Shinra.  He was eager to start over again with his life, but he wasn't sure how to approach Shinra after all of these years.  His thoughts were interrupted as the door cracked open and the man laid a shirt on the sink.

            "Still no sign of consciousness," Cloud asked as he entered the sleeping quarters that had been set for Aeris.  Barret had been keeping a close eye on her for the past couple of hours, but there really was nothing to see.  The sleeping beauty was as silent as ever.  Her heartbeat was excellent, but she was far from reality. 

            Cloud brushed his bright blonde hair back with one hand.  The spikes were gradually becoming longer and silkier as he went without a haircut.  This pleased him, but the sight of his good friend in a deep coma was his deepest concern at the moment.  "What if she never wakes up?"

            "We'll just have to take care of her until she does…" Tifa turned and walked out the door.  Her beautiful trail of silky brown hair followed her in a ponytail.  Cloud shook his head and sighed.  "I'm gonna go get a little shut eye.  If anything happens come and tell me, alright?"

            "You got it spike…" Barret careened back in his chair and closed his eyes after the younger man left the room.  He felt a certain need to care for the girl next to him.  He didn't want to leave her side because of what she had done for him so long ago.  If Aeris hadn't taken care of Marlene for him…God only knows where he would be right now.  She was such a kind person and thought not even twice about risking her life to save his daughter's.  "You're a true hero of mine Aeris, for what you did…  I ain't gonna let nothin' happen to ya eitha'."

            Barret stretched out and rested his head on the wall behind him.  I wonder what Marlene is up to right about now, he thought to himself in silent remorse.  He hated leaving her but when trouble came knocking he couldn't just sit back and watch.  Things needed to get done.  He had based his sole purpose in life on that philosophy.  If you want things done right, you gotta do it yer damn self.  He wasn't alone though he remembered.  Cloud and Tifa…and Cid, they were all capable of saving the world if the crisis came.  Maybe he just needed a piece of the action.  Things were so boring in Corel anyway.  He had helped rebuild it, but when the job was done, what else is there for a fighting man to do?  Hunt?  Fish the day away?  Oh well, he thought to himself.  I still gots Marlene to look after.  This eased his plagued storm of thoughts for only a brief few seconds before he realized that it would be a while before he would get to see her.  I hint of moisture glazed his eyes as he whispered to himself, "Man, I've done gone and let my daughter's childhood nearly pass me by.  What the hell have I been doing all these years?"

            Cid sat in his pilot seat cozily as the ship drifted towards home.  As his cigarette burned down, he watched the smoke haze before him.  It was a beautiful night, he thought to himself.  The clouds were right at level with the ship's altitude, creating an image of heaven within the frame of the windshield.  It was rare that he just went out to see the sky.  It was absolutely fascinating for him to watch the small world from the big blue, open sky.  His dreams of exploring space had subsided with the death of Shinra, but his eagerness to be the first to do it still haunted him in his incapability.  Maybe I'll get up there one of these days and explore everything…just maybe, he thought to himself.  Along they're journey to kill Sephiroth, he had gotten a small taste of what it was like in space.  He had managed to be the first man in space, but would he be the first man to explore it?

The ship had grown very quiet since everyone had settled in.  The low hum of the mako engines soothed the nervousness that was abound, but Cloud was still restless in his bunk.  He had laid out his Buster Sword and armor, and begun tediously cleaning them.  He thought about everything he had just witnessed as he buffed them to perfection.  He had grown so agitated with his thoughts that he punched the table.  His agitation was ceased as he heard a marble-like clank ring out in the dimly lit room.  The White Materia had fallen out of his armor slot and rested itself on the floor, glowing its usual blue glow.  His eyes softened and his mood smoothened.  All the stress that had built up over the past few hours suddenly vanished.  That cool blue light was all it took to calm him…  "I've got to think of a plan to take out Shinra…"


	6. A Place Called Home

The dinner table in the small house was very old and built of dark brown wood.  The matching chairs were equally worn, and it was surprising that they were still intact.  I wonder how old this little village is, the visitor thought to himself.  The entire place was fairly rundown, but the cozy feel of the home, it seemed, would never fade.  The boy, Bobby, and his father must have lived there for a long time, he thought to himself as he looked around.  The windows, though dark due to the late hour, were clouded with a smoky gray.  The years contained within the smoky glaze provided a safe translucency to the window, but in doing so made it incapable of being seen through clearly.  He wondered what the hour was.  

"So what do you do for a living, sir?  That is, if you do not mind me asking." Sephiroth glanced over to the man a few feet away from him.  Harold, though his own formality involuntarily insisted on calling him sir, sat with his elbows on the edge of the table, slowly sipping his cup of black coffee.  "I noticed that you don't have much to do with the mining business around here."

"Hmm…I'm surprised you noticed.  No, I don't mind though." The man waved his hand causally as he replied.  Sephiroth leaned back as he awaited the answer.  His muscles ached as if he had just ran a hundred miles.  His thoughts were tore away from his own discomfort as Harold spoke.  "I live off of Shinra Social Security.  I used to be a miner in the Mythril Mines near Zolem Swamp, but after they closed it down because of the mutated beasts I cashed in and retired.  I adopted Bobby from an orphanage in Mideel and thought that this place would be a fun and educational experience for him.  Ha.  All that boy cares about is joining SOLDIER though."

"Hmm, reminds me of myself when I was younger.  I attended the Shinra University a few miles outside of the town of Kalm from the age of ten.  I eventually joined SOLDIER when I was eighteen.  I had finally made it to the highest rank of Top Officer, but by that time…I was just getting back from the war.  I think that was when I decided I wanted to take a vacation.  I think I was a little too young to be in that kind of a rank," the silver haired man became lost in his thoughts as he remembered things that it seemed he had forgotten.  He was sort of lying but, at the same time, he couldn't just say that he had fallen asleep and woken up in a crater.  Harold had grown very interested.

"How old were ye?" he asked with a quizzical look.

"I was only twenty one.  Most SOLDIERs in my rank were in they're forties." Sephiroth made something similar to a chuckle.  The man was surprised.  

"You said your name was Sephiroth?  I think I remember hearing a lot about you a few years ago.  A lot of people considered you to be a war hero.  I didn't keep up on the Shinra Wutai War but I heard that your squadron turned the tides for Shinra.  I hadn't realized that I'm sitting with a celebrity." The man chuckled at the realization. 

"I'm not a celebrity-

"Yeah he is, yeah he is grandpa!  He's the great Sephiroth!  He's a SOLDIER!  I want to be a SOLDIER too, just like him!" Bobby came bounding into the room, trying not to let them know that he had been eavesdropping.  His grandpa rolled his eyes.  

"So what is it like in SOLDIER man?" the small boy pulled a chair out and intently stared at him, awaiting a strained reply.  Sephiroth paused for a moment as he thought about his answer.  He knew the father did not want his grandson to go off and get killed being a SOLDIER so he planned his words carefully.  

"Well.  It's really boring at first.  You have to pass a lot of classes at the Shinra University.  It's a big crowded school where you aren't allowed to talk to anyone, and you have to wear these stuffy, itchy uniforms.  It usually takes SOLDIER candidates about ten years to graduate.  After you get passed all that stuff, the worst part comes.  You have to train to be the best of the best.  If you can't hold you own against the other candidates in your class, you won't have a chance at making it into First Class.  After that you have to start working, and Shinra doesn't hardly give you a day off.  Sometimes you have to work all through the night, and all through the next day." Sephiroth exaggerated the boring nature of SOLDIER training as much as he could.  

"What do you do?  Go fight monsters!" The boy cried out, leaping from his chair and slicing with an invisible sword.  His father tried to calm him down but he was too excited.  Sephiroth chuckled slightly.  Cute, he thought.  This kid just might have the spunk to be in SOLDIER.  

"No, don't get too hasty.  You only get to fight monsters when one attacks you, and you never see monsters on the upper plate of Midgar.  Work in SOLDIER means standing around guarding doors, and making sure no one breaks into the building.  The worst part of all is when a war happens though.  If you managed to survive in a war, you'll wish you hadn't.  You would probably lose all your friends, any family that served in the military with you, and you might even get hurt so bad that you can't do anything for the rest of your life." All the things he just mentioned were true however, and each one brought a painful memory to him, that is, except for the family part.  He never had any family.  The boy before him didn't seem to lose any of his extravagance though. 

"I don't care what it takes!  I'm going to be a First Class SOLDIER one of these days…" Bobby trailed off with his hero worship as his grandfather/father interrupted him.  He stroked his short, gray stubble of a beard as he looked over at the tall swordsman across from him.  His old calloused fingers forced a grainy sound against the sandpaper texture of his beard.

"So what are you headed to Midgar for again?" he asked in a sort of nonchalant fashion.  It was obvious that the old man was trying to get off the topic of SOLDIER, but in doing so, he also entered the same conversation without realizing it.  The man before him flipped his hair back and unsettlingly approached his answer

"Well, I am headed to Midgar so I can rejoin the Shinra Military.  I'd like to just stay at Midgar for the rest of my life.  That's the only home I have ever really known." Sephiroth replied casually as he untied his katana sheath from his hip.  He rested the black handled Masamune and sheath on the table and rubbed his side.  The sheath had been rubbing against a slowly healing wound and it brought relief to him to discard it.  He usually never went anywhere without his sword.  It was just one of those idiosyncrasies about him that people could always identify him with.  That was if they could get past his shiny hair first, he thought to himself.  

"Hopefully they get done with that Operation Midgar Reconstruction plan soon.  Last I heard there wasn't much of a Midgar to go back to." Harold chuckled slightly, but Sephiroth was very serious about this observation.  

"What do you mean Midgar Reconstruction?" His query was stern, and rigid.  Sephiroth's eyes showed a serious concern, Harold noticed, so he grabbed for the remote control of his television.  He paused before he turned it on.

"Well, about a month ago there was this crazy meteor threat.  Some crazy bastard had used an ancient materia to, I don't know, summon some big rock from outer space.  To make a long story short, this group of Mercenaries called Avalanche set out after the man and apparently killed him.  They are practically worshipped now by talk show hosts and propaganda.  I think the leader was named Strife…Cloud Strife is what it was, yes.  But anyway, bout the time they killed him, that big red rock started coming down on Midgar.  I guess a magic spell blocked the rock from landing on Midgar, but it ravaged the city to death.  I guess Rufus Shinra survived the ordeal and is now rebuilding Midgar.  It's a really great thing what he is doing." 

"Rufus Shinra is president now?  Why is the top dog's son in charge?" 

"Well, Rufus's father was murdered a few months ago and now Rufus is taking over.  Apparently he is giving a lot back to the city.  I never wanted to live there because those damn Shinra were so corrupt, but now I guess they are coming clean." Harold spoke as he clicked the television on and flipped through the channels.  Just as he landed on channel eighteen, the familiar Shinra News logo began to dissipate to a familiar reporter, sitting at a very familiar desk and background.  Sephiroth smiled.

"I guess nothing has really changed then." The two sat and watched the remainder of the ten o' clock news with little more conversation.  He was looking forward to his leave tomorrow.  He would surely meet with Shinra sometime soon, and his life would finally be back in order.  His inner excitement was almost too much to contain, but he showed it not. 

Everyone was sleeping soundly.  Even the pilot snored gently in a sensitive slumber at his controls.  The pilot seats were very comfortable, and rarely was it that he would escape to one of the more furnished bunks.  The yellow and black seats were insulated with environmental heating and cooling systems.  Based on the temperature outside the ship and the inside of it, the on board super computer would generate the perfect comfort zone temperature.  The seats were also movement designed so that every button in the two man cockpit could be reached with minimal effort, but countering this was the fact that the incredible degree of comfort would often put the pilot to sleep on long trips.  Cid Highwind wasn't a fool though, he designed motion sensors in the cockpit so that if there was no movement for more the five minutes, the ship would go on autopilot at a predestined altitude.  There was no way in heaven of hell he was going to wreck his baby, he thought to himself as he rustled to life and looked around.  He was startled to see that it was late at night and they were only an hour away from Rocket Town. 

"Time to get prepared for the landing," Cid spoke to himself as he pushed several buttons at his control panel.  The green radar screen before him was blank aside from the yellow grid lines that divided it.  He scratched his five o' clock shadow and headed out of the small cabin.  Everyone was asleep, he noticed.  There was hardly any noise, only the gentle clank of his combat boots on the metal floors.  He headed down into the engine bay and looked around in the shady light.  Everything seemed okay, Cid thought to himself as he checked each of the landing gear boxes thoroughly.  "Good.  I'd better check on Aeris and make sure she's still alive."

Barret, as he expected, was sleeping soundly in the small, cushioned chair beside her bed.  He obviously hadn't left her side all night.  Cid made a squeamish face as he examined the angle the large dark skinned man was sleeping in.  That's going to be a pain in the neck, Cid chuckled to himself inwardly.  On the contrary though, Barret had no sense for comfort.  Nothing seemed to hurt his huge muscular frame.  Cid quietly walked over to Aeris's bed and checked the readings on the portable health monitors.  Her heartbeat was perfect, and color had finally returned to her once cold and pale skin.  Her pink dress was faded and ravaged and still was stained with blood from Sephiroth's blade.  How are we going to explain that one to her, Cid thought to himself.  They couldn't tell her she had been dead, because of the psychological damage it could cause.  They would just tell her she had been in a coma for a long time.  

The rise and fall of the sweet girl's chest was an amazing sight.  It still hadn't quite registered in his mind that they had actually restored her life to her body.  He hadn't actually thought it was possible, but now…  Many things had happened over the past few months.  There were things he had seen that he never imagined seeing in his wildest dreams.  This was just another one of those things that he never thought he would witness.  He really owed a lot to Avalanche for giving him this opportunity, Cid Highwind thought as he walked out of the room.  He was met with the cold gaze of Cloud as he made his retreat.  He leapt slightly at the site of the younger man.  "Damn Cloud!  Don't sneak up on people like that!"

Barret stumbled awake at the sound of Cid's cursing.  It wasn't exactly a pleasant awakening.  Cloud paid no mind, he just walked in a stared at Aeris, laying so innocently on the bed.  "How is she doing?"

"Perfect, but there is no sign of consciousness yet.  And by the way, we are an hour from Rocket Town so get ready to help me transport her to the house.  You and Tifa and Barret will need to stay at the Inn down the road cuz' there ain't enough damn room in my house.  Plus…he, he, I'm sure Shera and I will be up all night if you know what I mean."

Cloud and Barret chuckled and gave Cid a sly look.  It would be something new to see Cid and Shera 'together'.  Shera was nearly six years younger than the blonde haired pilot, and of course they couldn't forget how horrible Cid used to treat her.  It was a miracle that they even lived with each other for so long, much less become engaged.  Cid left the room and headed down the hall back to his pilot seat.  He was flushed with excitement of actually getting to be home.

Dark eyelashes flickered open as a deep horn bellowed in the distance.  The sound was so loud that it managed to penetrate the walls of the house.  Over the night, the mako in his body had fully healed all of his wounds and he felt good in contrast to the soreness of day before.  The bandersnatch scratches were gone and his muscular frame was back to its perfect state.  Well you sure took long enough, Sephiroth thought to himself as he examined his body in the wall mirror by the spare bed.  He pulled the white dress shirt he had been loaned over his shoulders and inserted his arms into each of the sleeves.  The shirt was a little too large for him but it would suffice until he managed to get a new coat.  

"Mr. Sephiroth, the ship will be arriving in a few minutes.  You can get to the bay if you just head south.  You can't miss it, plus there will be a few people going with you." Harold stepped into the room, holding a kerosene lantern to illuminate the darkness of the early morning.  The small flame inside the glass tube burned like the cosmo candle.  After Sephiroth had composed himself, neatly made the spare bed, and tied his sword sheath to his hip, the older man stretched his hand out with a warm- hearted smile.  "It's been a pleasure knowin ye sir.  I wish you best in your travels."

"Thank you so much for your kindness sir.  And thank you for the shirt.  Give Bobby my farewells." Sephiroth shook the old mans work worn hand and walked to the door.  The man and his son didn't understand how deeply and thoroughly he enjoyed staying with them.  It had almost been like a real family.  He gently flipped his hair behind his shoulder and opened the door to the breezy chill of Bone Village.  The familiar aroma of dynamite, smoke, and freshly tilled dirt greeted him as he stepped outside.  There were few lights to guide his way but he needn't them.  In his SOLDIER training he had trained the mako- enhanced acuity of his senses to an extreme level.  He no longer needed the aid of a night vision lens to see through darkness.  It has its advantages, he thought to himself.  At least I don't have to worry about running into walls, he smirked inwardly but his attention was diverted as Harold patted him on the back.  

"Be careful out there.  If you ever get into a bind, you're welcome back here."

"Thanks a lot.  If I ever pass through again I will be sure to stop in and say hello.  Goodbye Harold." Sephiroth walked off as the firelight gently faded with the closing of the door.  He began walking towards the bay area just outside the village.  As he thought about it, there really were no boundaries to Bone Village.  The people just seemed to expand with they're excavations.  Generally they kept to the shelter of the giant skeletons though.  The darkness was thick, but he made his way easily.  "I hope I don't run into any monsters out here.  I really don't feel like fighting this early."

The grass began to crunch under his feet as he left the dirt paths of the small village.  The thick morning dew quickly soaked his legs, but the waterproof SOLDIER uniform prevented him from chilling to the bone with wetness.  This would be interesting, he thought inwardly.  I wonder how people will react to my sudden reappearance.  I wonder how Shinra will react.  They declared me missing in action, even taking the time to make up a fake obituary.  What if it wasn't so fake though?  What if I really died?  "Just get to the boat Seph…just stop thinking…"

As he made it to the dock he noticed several others awaiting passage onto the cargo ship.  A few people had already exited and were making they're way down the ramp and towards Bone Village.  He did his best to stay in the shadows as people boarded the ship.  Luckily there was no boarding sailor, so he didn't have to show his face to anyone that might recognize him.  The ship wasn't very large but there were easily enough accommodations for the small number of travelers and himself.  The white paint on the outside of the cargo ship peeled with age but the bright red logo of the Shinra Corporation still glowed flamboyantly.  As he boarded he could feel the wooden boards creak under his feet ominously.  This boat seemed familiar, yet he didn't understand why.  He discarded the thought and headed to the nearest vacant room to sort out his other, more important thoughts.


	7. Calm Before the Storm

            The sunlight was just beginning to peer through the motel window of the Rocket Town Inn as Cloud Strife stirred from unconsciousness.  Tifa Lockheart lay beside him, gently breathing in a deep sleep.  The past day had really taken a toll on her, he observed.  He rubbed his bright blue eyes and glanced around the room.  The walls were painted a yellowish color, he now noticed.  The girl next to him and himself had drudged into the one bed motel room too tiredly the night before to notice such menial things as the color of the walls, or the soft blue carpet.  What the hell were they thinking, Cloud thought to himself in a jocular fashion.  Urine colored walls topped off with electric blue carpet.  It amused him even more to find that the window was curtained with purple drapes.  "Better than the slums I guess."

            Tifa groaned as he sat over the edge of the creaky bed and pulled on his black SOLDIER Uniform.  Cloud tied his boots and walked over to the small bathroom a few feet away.  He quickly fixed his hair and washed his face.  As he walked out of the bathroom he noticed something that struck him.  Tifa was wearing nothing but white underwear.  Whoa, he thought to himself.  This is going to be a good day.  Tifa didn't even think about it as she pulled her clothes on and laced her fighting boots tightly.  She casually swooped her raven hair back and smiled at him. 

            "Good morning," She said as she stretched out.  She must have been teasing him because her tight shirt and miniskirt pulled up nearly three inches with the movement.  The blond haired man casually acted like he didn't notice and coolly grabbed the hilt of his sword from the corner of the room.  The dark blade didn't even seem to have a luster to it.  "Sleep good last night?"

            "Next to you, who wouldn't?" Cloud mused with a slight less volume than other, more casual, statements.  Tifa let out a gruff, inaudible reply, but was nonetheless humored by the young man's bravery.  She pulled on her gauntlets and opened the front door of the motel room, silently waiting for her 'companion' to follow.  Cloud sheathed his giant sword on the magnetic strip of his uniform and exited the musty room.  The chill of the morning air greeted him with a refreshing breath of crisp grassland breeze.  Rocket town was truly a wonderful place.  Calm, quiet, with everyone so busy with they're daily lives that they move as one giant system.  Much like Nibelhiem, Cloud thought to himself. 

            "I am anxious to hear whether Aeris has risen from her coma yet." Tifa took a deep breath and glanced around at the city.  She was truly a beautiful figure.  For that matter, the duo together were a beautiful couple. 

            "We should head to Cid's house right away.  I'm assuming she is in the care of his home." Cloud stated as they headed down the dirt road towards Cid Highwind's tiny home.  "And to think that he and Shera were doing the dirty last night with Aeris just in the other room.  Gross…"

            As they walked through the aged wooden doorframe, the familiar scent of tea, cigarette smoke and a faint trace of oil were the first sensations to spark memories for the two.  They both looked at each other warmly and walked into the back spare bedroom.  Barret was the only one there.  His weariness was so blatant that Tifa rushed over to him instantly and rubbed his huge dark shoulders.  His eyes had dark sacks beneath them and were covered in tiny tendrils of red.  It was both saddening and admirable that he would dedicate his time in its entirety to Aeris' safety. 

            "Barret, go to the motel and get a room.  We'll be in rocket town for a few days.  You have to catch up on sleep or you'll end up sick." Tifa checked the monitor that displayed Aeris' data as she spoke to the large dark skinned man.  Cloud agreed with the girl, patting Barret on the back.

            "We'll look after her man, don't worry about it.  Just go get some sleep.  You're a total mess."

            "Aight.  I am pretty tired.  If she wakes up while I'm gone, call me up." Barret spoke gruffly, words grudgingly muddling together from the weariness that was only noticeable when he moved an appendage.  He stood up with a few cracking complaints from his sore bones, and stretched out.  He let out a mighty yawn and proceeded to exit the small house.  Cloud looked over at Tifa after he heard the front door close.  She was checking Aeris' heart rate, brain activity, and general health via the advanced medical bed.  The bed was a Shinra made medical supply, which kept perfect record of a patient's bodily functions.  Several tubes fed necessary fluids for recovery into the small girls wrist, and all the sensors supplied the necessary information on the small monitor connected to the foot of the bed.

            "Well, it seems our sleeping beauty is in good condition.  I would expect her to wake up any time soon," Tifa said, glancing up from the small monitor to Clouds handsome face.  He was looking at her, she noticed.  His bright blue eyes glowed with such intensity that any ignorant girl on the street would mistake the look for lust.  Tifa understood that the glow in his eyes meant far more than emotions.  Although, when a SOLDIER's eyes change color, or intensity, it is often a dictation from emotion.  She pondered deeply what he was thinking at that moment…just before he looked away casually.  "Every thing alright?"

            "Yeah…I just had a thought." Cloud glanced over at the beautiful brown haired girl on the bed.  "She is going to be so confused…I…I'm not sure what to tell her…"

            "I know." Tifa replied.  "We cannot tell her what really happened.  But will she even be the same person when she wakes up?"

            "I don't know.  If we tell her that Sephiroth took her life and then we resurrected her a month later, it might do mental damage to her.  I don't want to take that risk, but she is going to want to know the truth." Cloud brushed the girls long hair out away from her face and stroked her chin lightly.  Tifa felt a small blade of jealousy strike her in the stomach but she discarded the thought instantly.  There were much more important things than love interests to deal with at the moment.

            "We'll worry about that when we have to," interrupted the gruff voice of Cid Highwind as he barged into the quiet room with a robustly cheery mood.  Shera could be heard in the kitchen starting dinner and mixing some of her amazing iced tea.  "Tifa, I was hoping maybe you would help Shera cook dinner tonight, eh?  Your both great cooks but I haven't had your cooking for a _long _time!"

            "Sure Cid.  Sounds good.  I think it would do me some good to do something productive!" Tifa felt a spark of excitement within her at the thought of cooking again.  Besides fighting, it was her utmost enjoyed activity.  She quickly exited the room and met Shera in the kitchen.  They were both happy to see each other again and began chatting about what to cook for dinner. 

            "We need to talk Cloud.  Don't mention anything to Barret yet cuz' this is some serious shit that he doesn't need to worry about right now.  I'm going to head over to the shop and grab us a couple of combat packs and some supplies." Cid kept his voice down so the girls wouldn't hear him.  Cloud simply nodded with a bewildered look on his face.  "We'll head out after dark so we may not be back in time for dinner.  Be sure to grab something before we head out."

            "Just what the hell is happening?" Cloud crossed his arms with a questioning look on his face.  Cid grinned mischievously.

            "Just meet me on the outskirt of town…the Mt. Nibel side, at seven thirty tonight." Cid patted Cloud on the shoulder and turned to exit the room.  "Oh, and also…bring your sword and best materia combination."

            The capital city of Wutai was truly a beautiful place.  Cobblestone roads and walkways covered nearly ninety percent of the ground, yet there was still an aura of natural earthly beauty about the place.  The central courtyard was the workplace of nearly every inhabitant of the general population.  If you weren't a soldier for the emperor than you were a peasant merchant.  There were very few occupational options for the citizens of the Godo Empire, but it was a place unlike the rest of the technological world.  People didn't care about individuality, only working together as a community.  Unlike the brutal atmosphere in the slums of Midgar, Wutai had hardly any crime.  None of these things, however, were on the minds of the five dark figures in the helicopter approaching the center of the courtyard.  Merchants scrambled to hide behind their barrels and wagons of self-made merchandise.  Everyone, however, was equally surprised to find the Emperor Godo himself approaching the landing site with his young daughter Yuffie by his side.  Both with dressed in fine oriental fashions.

            Yuffie had developed into quite a beautiful young lady over the past month.  Her birthday had come just recently and by her country's laws, she was rightfully an adult.  Her raven black hair was styled neatly like always, but she was now dressed in a fiery red kimono with a slightly revealing top.  Godo on the other hand was completely garbed from shoulder to toe in red and gold robes.  A beautiful red and yellow katana was sheathed at his side along with his smaller wakizashi sword.  He was a wise old samurai in every sense of the word.  His long black hair rushed back in the violent wind that invaded the ceremonial grounds.

            "Godo is a kind man, but he is stubborn in the ways of his nation.  Reno, be on your best behavior, and Elena, no complaining about anything, and also…Rude, for the love of God, speak if you are spoken to.  Is this all understood?" Reeves glanced out the window as all of them nodded.  Elena, taking the worst of it, grunted a slight protest but agreed nonetheless.  Reeves looked cautiously into Vincent Valentine's eyes.  The retina of his nearly black eyes glowed slightly with a blood red tint.  Reeves knew that he held no animosity for anyone around him, but Vince was a very cold and unloving man.  He greatly resembled the late Turk leader Tseng, only that he was much more collected leader than Tseng had ever been.  There was nothing sporadic about his behavior and his ties were bound so limitedly.  Valentine was not a foolish thrill seeker as Tseng had been.  Tseng weaved the web of his own untimely death the moment the idea to follow Sephiroth came to mind.  Silk words and a mako pistol simply were not enough to sway Sephiroth's lust for blood.  "This is our one shot at balancing the power scale in the world.  If Godo agrees to our plans we can take on Rufus and get him off of his golden throne.  I have dedicated my life to the city of Midgar since its birth, and I refuse to sit and watch Rufus treat its civilians like animals."

            The Shinra Helicopter landed smoothly on the rough ground below.  The winds created by its whipping blades gathered dust and random particles, throwing them in random directions.  Civilians backed towards the outer walls of the courtyard, not sure whether they should fear the incoming visitors or welcome them.  As the helicopter's side hatch opened it released a small spray of blue steam, obviously the mako power the engine ran on.  A small metal step folded down and the five tuxedo dressed outsiders stood before Godo and Yuffie.  All of them bowed with Reeves lead and accepted a small nod in return from Godo and his daughter.  Reno sleazily eyed Yuffie's new attire and accepted a rolling of the eyes from the less than elegant girl. 

            "Welcome.  I am assuming you wish to speak with me alone?" Godo spoke solely to Reeves, although he eyed each of the Turks beside him equally. 

            "That would be a necessity your highness, thank you." Reeves nodded slightly and gripped the silver briefcase at his side carefully.  Godo noticed that a magnetic handcuff ensured that the briefcase would never go anywhere without Reeves fragile arm connected to it.

            "Very well sirs…and madam.  You may follow me to my executive council room." Godo turned on a heel and set the pace to his imperial dojo.  He casually rested his left palm on the red hilt of his katana as they walked, making it plain and obvious that they held no power in their current position.  "These matters you spoke of to me when we last conversed…they are trivial, and I have found myself and my council questioning the absolute value of what you offer.  Is it truly what you say it is?  With you now, _do_ you carry the secret to Shinra's might?"

            "Yes your highness.  But such matters should not be discussed in the presence of the common people.  Such information could prove both dangerous to those who know it, and dangerous for those who spoke it." Reeves wavered only slightly in his rebuttal.  Unable to see the Emperor's face, the five were unsure of his thoughts.

            "You are a smart man Mr. Reeves.  I admire such forethought." Godo humored slightly with his words, but returned to his emotionless state of mind almost instantly.  "We shall speak no more of these matters until we reach the dojo."

            As they entered the massive wooden complex of Godo's home, the fresh scent of aged wood and candle wax accosted they're senses.  They're clicking footsteps were yet another cultural difference they noticed, as Godo and Yuffie wore tight leather sandals, soft to the wooden floors.  Their heavy black dress shoes were not of the appeal of the general Wutain culture.  They all followed the wise Emperor into the well lit council room, which was already seated by the members of his council.  Each of them were garbed in the traditional robes, each accompanied by a unique katana sword.  They all sat at the desk and watched intently as Reeves disarmed the magnetic handcuffs and laid the silver briefcase neatly in front of himself.

            "We have gathered today to discuss a very important matter, gentlemen," Godo broke from his more formal speech, and spoke in a more business like fashion.  "Mr. Reeves is the ex-head of urban development of the Shinra Corporation.  He was the original designer of Midgar and has watched over improvisations made to it over the past twenty years.  However, Rufus Shinra, the newly appointed leader of Midgar, has ushered him out of Midgar and taken his tyrannical role as President once again.  As you all know, the strange incident involving a meteor over Midgar destroyed most of the city just over a month ago.  Reeves single handedly, with the help of thousands of maintenance crews worldwide, led a campaign to rebuild Midgar.  Rufus Shinra's acts are both morally diminishing, and blatantly wrong.  Mr. Reeves, would you care to finish?"

            "Thank you your highness.  Emperor Godo is correct.  I led Midgar back to prosperity, and cleaned up the mess that Shinra cared nothing about.  He purposely waited until I had finished rebuilding Midgar, then gathered his SOLDIERs and seized the Headquarters from the executives I had appointed.  He threw allegations at me such as traitorous behavior, and fed lies to the main media that I attempted to murder him in order to take his company.  He single handedly turned all of the people I worked so hard to shelter against me and sent me on my way." Reeves looked down at the briefcase for a moment before continuing his speech.  "What Shinra hadn't expected was that I had gone through all of their computer systems, downloaded all of their important data.  I'll get to that in a minute, but right now I would like to introduce my gift to you, should you be willing to use it."

            Everyone waited in anticipation as Reeves dialed several codes into the top of the briefcase and opened it with a slight hiss of air invading the airlock casing.  The case opened flat and everyone was confused to find several sealed containers, a set of syringes, a small laptop computer, and a set of computer discs.  "What I have brought you today is every secret to Shinra's success.  This laptop computer contains a map of mako currents running beneath the planets surface.  Also there is Shinra's industrial secret to building mako reactors, ranging from full-scale city sufficient mammoths to small-scale home generators.  The required materials are all listed and the production of each is also explained.  Anything you could imagine that Shinra has made can be found in full detail on this computer and on this set of discs.  Now you may be wondering why I have brought you this gift."

            "Mr. Reeves is giving us the chance to build a military equal to Shinra's and tap into the amazing qualities of mako.  With these maps we will be able to locate the nearest mako vein and build a small reactor capable of mass-producing mako.  Mr. Reeves, would you please explain the relevance of the strange colored liquids in your briefcase?" Godo glanced over at Reeves, trying to keep the conversation going so that the council couldn't burst into conflict with the plan.

            "These vials contain enough mako to enhance the senses, physical attributes, magical properties, and endurance of a small group of average men.  When bathed in these fluids for a period of up to four hours, the body will absorb the enhancements that are naturally within mako.  Subjects will notice short-term side affects such as nausea, fatigue, and the excretion of random bodily fluids and waste." Reeves paused as one of the council members raised a hand to speak.

"Yes?  Any questions are welcome." Godo allowed.

"Just what exactly will happen to a human physically when they are enhanced with mako?  This is very serious." The slightly middle aged man asked with a serious tone to his voice.

"One of the most amazing benefits of mako enhancement is when the body begins to take on a perfect state.  Skin will automatically release any unnecessary melanin, hair follicles, and oil, and muscles will fill out quickly under the stress of menial activities such as jogging and pushups.  One other incredible enhancement mako has on the body is the excretion of wasteful materials in the body such as fat, cholesterol, and natural waste.  This process takes only a few days.  Once these materials are gone mako enhanced humans no longer are required to waste time eating large meals to whet an appetite.  Most of Shinra's SOLDIERs rarely eat actual meals they simply take three nutrient pills per day.  This adds to the value of your military when such time consuming activities are no longer necessary.  One thing that has not been verified as a side effect or an enhancement is increased scalpel hair growth and increased nail growth along with the infamous glowing retina.  Many SOLDIERs are known to have bright eyes, long beautiful hair and glass like nails because of this.  It could be either an indulgent or a task, but very menial to say the least." Reeves paused again as another hand was raised.  Godo nodded, allowing his underling to speak.

"What your saying is that mako attempts to perfect the body in all ways?  What if someone has one eye or a missing hand?" The man posed his question carefully, thinking it through before speaking.  Reeves was all too understanding of this and waved coolly.

"If they are not fully able they are not suitable for the SOLDIER program.  It is as simple as that.  The SOLDIER program is primarily for young adults and boys in their middle teens.  Before you protest, this serves it's own purpose.  Such young ages allow for the enhancements to grow with them.  When they finally reach a more mature state they will be extremely strong and skilled as a fighter." Reeves stopped to allow another question.

"Now that we know all the things that affect the physical appearance, what we really need to know is how mako makes great warriors.  So far all I've heard is that we have a perfect human being that is pretty on the outside and never has to eat or shit.  This drifts from our need." The slightly cocky young man aroused a bit of laughter from his colleagues, before Reeves and the Turks on either side of him chuckled in reply.

"How does mako make amazing soldiers?  It allows binocular vision, senses so sharp that you can feel the air move from several yards away when someone is sneaking up on you.  You can hear the faintest whisper or the click of an insects legs on the glass should you choose to hone on something that intensely.  When you breathe you can smell individual components of oxygen and taste impurities in the air that an average human could not.  Should your airways become blocked it is possible, if trained well enough, to relax and open your pores to intake enough oxygen to keep your heart and brain alive.  Physical and mental endurance can be trained to an extreme level such as the First Class SOLDIER ranks who perform primarily on one hour of sleep per week.  With careful training a mako enhanced human can speed up the healing process of wounds including optical, internal, and external wounds to an extreme pace.  Wounds can heal overnight.  The resiliency of bones, ligaments, and even the enamel of teeth increase dramatically, and can all be regenerated if damaged.  Strength, speed, agility, dexterity, endurance, and even magical prowess develop beyond the capabilities of any human or beast.  Gentleman, mako infusion is the equivalent of the term 'Perfect Soldier'.  This is what I offer you."

Everyone in the room sat silent for an uncomfortable period of time.  Even the emperor himself was stricken by the thought of such power.  Yuffie sat lazily back in her chair, quite bored with the conversation.  She cared little for daddies little projects.  Reno, Rude, Elena, and Vincent all sat silently in their chairs.  They were only there to protect Reeves should the situation turn for the worst.  It could have mattered less to them if Godo accepted to begin a line of SOLDIERs.  Everyone fixed their gazes on Emperor Godo Kisaragi. 

"Gentleman, who is in favor of beginning this project?" Godo asked with a slight indifference to his voice.  It seemed he was doubtful of his council's compliance.  Everyone began to whisper to each other.  Soon enough they all began to nod approvingly.

"Your highness, I believe your host here has bought our attention.  We are in full support of this new military plan."

"Then it is settled.  Tomorrow we will begin production on this new reactor plan and begin landscaping for the placement of it.  We don't need a very large reactor, just a medium sized one capable of producing enough mako for the treatments.  And Mr. Reeves, you are in charge of this project.  Please do not let this backfire on Wutai.  You will be well protected also, so don't worry about some nonconformist attacking you.  The meeting is adjourned, and all of you must keep silent about these matters until it is time to begin registration." Godo nodded to his council and to Reeves and turned to the exit.

Cloud finished off the nutrition bar that he had grabbed from Cid's cabinet and peered around the edge of the house.  He had been waiting on the outskirt of town as he had been instructed for nearly a half hour.  There was no sign of Cid it seemed.  Just what does he mean to do dragging me all the way out here after dark, Cloud thought to himself in annoyance.  Just as the thought went through his head, the sound of an all-terrain vehicle rumbled in the distance.  It was Cid.  He rolled to a stop in the vehicle, rolling down the window and ushering Cloud inside.  The vehicle was quite nice, the young man noticed.  It had black leather interior, and all the necessities that a land rover called for.  Before getting in Cloud set his sword in the backseat.  After the door slammed shut he looked over at Cid who had a strangely serious expression on his face.

"So what the hell is going on that you don't want anybody else to know about?" Cloud brushed his hair back with one hand, agitated.  Cid took off over the bumpy grasslands outside of Rocket Town.  He was headed straight for Mt. Nibel.  This made Cloud's stomach begin to flutter.  He hadn't been near those dangerous peaks since the search for Sephiroth.

"Up ahead here there is a cave entrance that leads to the pipelines of the Nibel Reactor.  While Shera and I were out in the town today I overheard a few hunters mention they saw Shinra vehicles around the cave entrance.  They mentioned that they were hauling scraps out of there.  It is important that we investigate this immediately because if the Shinra are up to something around this reactor, they might be festering with the other ones too.  We have to figure out what's going on.  It will give us a heads up before we dive into Midgar for a shitfest." Cid kept his calmness and focused on his driving.  Cloud was shocked. 

"Shinra…playing around with the Nibel Reactor?  Something definitely isn't right.  I wonder what they are up to?" Cloud looked out the window and kept watch for any beasts that might attempt to stop them.  Why would they be hauling scraps out of that shithole, Cloud thought to himself.  Maybe they are tearing it down?

"We're about to find out my friend because the cave is only a half a mile over this hill." Cid smothered the remainder of his cigarette out as they approached the cave entrance slowly.  There were, as the hunters mentioned, Shinra transport trucks everywhere.  There was no one currently outside, making it easy for Cid and Cloud to hide the land rover and sneak into a few of the trucks for information.

"Here's the deal.  You check those trucks over there and I'll search through these.  Grab any useful pieces of information that you can.  There should be something to explain why they are here in Nibel." Cloud looked around, his blue retinas the only thing visible to Cid in the darkness of they're hiding spot.  The entrance to the cave was lit up brightly, he noticed.  Obviously they had fed some industrial sized lights into the cave from the truck batteries.  Cid nodded to Cloud and they both silently moved towards the large Shinra trucks. 

Cloud quietly opened the door of the first of the six trucks and climbed into the cab.  The familiar smell of Shinra made vehicles brought back fond memories of his days in the military.  He fumbled around through the glove box for anything useful and quickly asserted that there was nothing of value to him in the vehicle.  He quickly moved onto the next, searching everything and finding nothing.  Upon checking the third truck he did find a small planner that surely held some information.  He slid it into his backpack and climbed out of the truck meeting up with Cid behind one of the large trucks.  "Anything good?"

"No but one of the soldier's radios was on and I could hear em' going on about the mission." Cid glanced to the cave entrance.  A slight wince told Cloud that something wasn't right.  He could have sworn he saw a large shadow creep past it.  "Did you see that?"

"No wha-" Cloud attempted a reply but it was cutoff sharply by the scream of a human being inside the cave.  Several rounds of fire went off from the soldier's mako rifles, but several more screams followed.  Cid glanced at him with a look of concern.  They both took off towards the cave, curious as to what was attacking the platoon inside.  The wet grass squeaked under they're feet as they stopped abruptly and peered in cautiously.  Both reached for they're weapon as they saw the monstrosity lurking within.  It was a giant red arachnid creature with many glowing orbs stuck in its armored skin.  There were several shredded soldiers lying about, but the arachnid was focused on one man in particular.  Cloud studied him for a moment, instantly realizing that he was a SOLDIER of First Class rank.  He placed a hand over Cids spear and made the notion for him to watch.  Cid eyed the situation suspiciously but complied easily.  He hadn't really wanted to take on that monster anyway.

The SOLDIER stood his ground as the spider closed the distance to him slowly.  He reached to his hip and unsheathed a long straight edged sword from its sheath.  The SOLDIER's face was completely focused on the arachnid as the workings of his tactical mastery forged a beautiful chain of attacks upon the giant spider.  The large monster was so tall that it couldn't reach to bite him without getting hurt, so it proceeded to stab at him viciously with its claws.  The young man weaved in and out of attacks like a serpent as he laid perfectly aimed strikes to vital points on the monsters legs.  Just as the sword attack came to an end, the SOLDIER stunned the beast with a Lighting spell and leapt onto one of its legs in the confusion.  The arachnid swung wildly but the brave SOLDIER held on defiantly.  He climbed quickly to the top of the hideous monster's body and raised his sword to stab the monsters thick skull.  The sword came down in a flash and ended the huge mutated beasts life instantly.  As the spider came crashing down, the SOLDIER slid coolly down one of its legs and walked away. 

Cloud studied the man for a moment and became intrigued once again by the phenomenal abilities of the First Class SOLDIER.  The young man had long black hair, tied back at the nape of his neck. The uniform the man wore was very similar to his own black SOLDIER uniform.  His eyes glowed with a bluish tint and his dark eyelashes closed over them for a split second as he looked around at his team.  Everyone in his platoon was dead.  Blood painted the floor and the cave walls.  The scene was like a green and blue canvass sprayed with red.  The spider's body was crumpled on the floor behind the young man.  Its armored skin seemed to glow like materia.  Then it happened.  One of the arachnid's fangs lurched out and stung the oblivious man in the leg.  He cried out in surprise and whipped his blade across the fang before it could retreat.  A yellowish slime sprayed out as the fang was severed from the now dead spider.  The man dropped to his knees slowly and from there fell on his face.  Cloud and Cid leapt from their hiding places and sprinted to the fallen warrior.  Cloud checked his heartbeat and discovered that it was still strong.  He dropped his pack to the ground and rummaged through its contents for an antidote.  After finding the small syringe he pulled the man's sleeves back and injected it into his vein. 

"I don't know if we should be helping him, Cloud.  He is our enemy after all…" Cid was unsure about the situation as he kept watch for any other enemies.  Cloud looked up at him and back down to the fallen SOLDIER.  "What if he tries to attack us when he gets better?"

"I don't think he is that stupid Cid.  A smart SOLDIER knows when he can't win.  He will try different tactics outside of combat to escape.  Grab my pack while I carry him out of here." Cloud grabbed the man and carried him over the shoulder.  Cid grabbed both of their packs and retrieved the man's long silver blade from the ground. 

"Go ahead and put him in the back seat of the rover.  I'm going to check these infantry soldiers and see if they have any useful information on them." Cid headed to the nearest blue uniformed soldier and knelt down beside him.  He pulled out the man's wallet and rummaged through it.  A roll of family pictures fell out, but Cid purposely resisted looking at them.  He knew he would kill another man before his adventures were over and he didn't need guilt on his shoulders.  There was nothing but a few gil and some phone numbers.  After checking the rest of the soldiers he noticed a small clipboard on the ground and rushed over to it. 

"I'll be damned."

Reeves stepped out of the shower in his personal dojo room and grabbed a white towel from the wall mount.  He dried himself quickly and brushed his short dark hair back with his hand.  As he looked in the mirror he noticed that he had let his goatee get out of hand and rummaged through the cabinet for a razor or clippers.  He was a man of perfection.  He always had been, he thought to himself.  The key to his success had been his attention to detail.  Midgar, Junon, the Gold Saucer…they had all been his creations.  He was given no credit for most of his works of architectural art, but his success with Shinra was undeniable.  After trimming his beard and brushing his teeth, the small businessman pulled a silk robe over his shoulders and headed towards his bed. 

In the room across from Reeves', another fairly frail man was getting ready for bed, but in a much different manner.  Reno slumped back into the soft cushions of his red satin bed and closed his bright green eyes.  His sharp features delegated the true nature of his being.  He wasn't sharp.  He was sloppy and uncaring.  One of such behavior would seem unsuitable for a Turk, but Reno was totally accurate both with his shock stick and his dealings.  He unbuttoned the rest of his dress shirt, which was usually half open most of the time anyway, and took a swig of whiskey from the bottle cradled at his side.  This was his life, and he truly loved every moment of it.  Alcohol was his best friend.  It slept with him, ate with him, made him laugh, dried his tears, and was less expensive than any woman.  His long shiny locks of blood red hair fanned out around him as he pulled it out of a hair tie.  He snapped the small band across the room just before falling into an unconscious drunken stupor.

Elena's room was just on the other side of Reno's and was much more quiet.  The young blonde Turk lounged in the bathtub of her dojo and soaked up the heat of the bubbly liquid around her beautiful and curvaceous body.  Her shoulder length blonde hair was wet and swept back and her dark wine colored eyes were hidden behind long lashes.  She didn't seem like the type of person to be involved with the Turks, much less be one.  She could easily strike a simple-minded man as a low profile secretary, but there was far more fire hidden behind her petite frame than met the eye.  She reached her wet arm out of the hot water and delicately grasped a cocktail glass and sipped it.  Being a Turk wasn't so bad though, she thought to herself.  If only Tseng were still around.  She let out a slight sigh at the thought of her ex-mentor's name.  She could just imagine how beautiful they're children would've been.

Rude's room was next to Reeve's and was also very quiet.  The stillness of the atmosphere represented the silent nature of his attitude.  He was a man of few words, and there were few words that could describe him.  He wasn't the type of man to allow too much to be known about himself.  His true eye color was even a bewildering subject amongst his fellow Turks.  He never removed his sunglasses unless he was asleep.  His suit was always completely pressed to perfection, and his boots were always shined to a perfect black finish.  He looked in the mirror as he took out all of his many earrings and folded his dark glasses to retire for the evening.  After hanging his clothes neatly in the closet and shaving he neatly pulled back the black covers of his bed and went to sleep.  That was that.  Rude didn't bother with the usual things most humans do.  He gets up, goes to work, maybe has a drink with his friend Reno, and then goes to bed.  There were some days where he wouldn't even speak a word.  It was all natural to him.

The most ominous of ominous men was Vincent Valentine.  This was known by all who knew him, and all who had crossed his path before…his many different paths.  Vincent's room was just down the hall from the others and was much different than any of his companions.  He sat up straight and tall at a small wooden desk and poured himself over a thick book.  His composure was always to the utmost highest level.  His dark eyes gleamed with a blood red tint to them as they crisscrossed over the lines of the book.  His long raven hair was tied back at the nape of his neck and his bright gold claw shined brightly in the overhead lamp.  His attention was never diverted as he read away at whatever interest he had for the evening.  After finishing the last line of his book, Vincent Valentine pulled his mako pistol out of it's holster and disengaged the clip of glowing bullets.  He laid the two pieces of the gun on the table and prepared for the short unconsciousness that humans called sleep.  He knew sleep.  Eight hours was not sleep…

            Tifa, Shera, and Barret all sat quietly at the small dinner table in the kitchen.  Few words were exchanged as they all picked at they're food meticulously.  The two females were quite nervous.  Neither of they're 'companions' had returned for a couple of hours.  It was already late and they said they would be back in an hour.  It was strange enough that they had taken the land rover and not told them where they were going at such distances.  Barret glanced up from his meal and opened his mouth to console.  Just before the words could be uttered, the door burst open and Cid Highwind walked quickly to the back room where Aeris was resting.  He grabbed a blanket and a pillow and laid them out on the wooden floor before pulling his black leather backpack off his back and laying it next to the makeshift bed.  Barret and the two girls shot up from they're seats in surprise as Cloud stumbled through the doorway with a full grown man unconscious over his shoulder.  Barret and Tifa both gasped. 

            "Just what the hell have you guys been up to?  That's a First Class SOLDIER!  Why did you bring him here," Barret exclaimed as Cloud drug the equally sized SOLDIER to the back room and set him on the makeshift bed.  He pulled the mans slick raven hair out of the ponytail to release any pressure on his head and pulled the turtleneck-like uniform away from his throat.  Cid grabbed a pocket knife and began cutting the material around the man's wounded leg.  The pocket knife did little to no damage to the dense fabric.

            "Damn it.  Cloud, these pants won't cut very well." Cid cut again at the fabric, frustrated.  Cloud shook his head.

            "That was they're purpose, actually.  Go get a razor, they cut a little better." Cloud rummaged through the bag and found another anti-toxin.  He fed the needle into the man's vein and injected the antidote slowly.  Cid finally got the fabric around the infection wound cleared and cleaned the puncture with alcohol.  He quickly wrapped a cloth around the wound and bandaged it with medical tape.  "Well, he should be alright I imagine.  We'll leave him in here until he wakes up.  It will probably be a few hours."

            "Just what the hell is going on?" Barret crossed his huge arms and looked down at both Cid and Cloud.  He was a very domineering person, but neither of the smaller men were affected.

            "Earlier today I heard some people talking about seeing Shinra vehicles around the Nibel cave.  Cloud and I investigated the cave tonight only to witness the entire platoon butchered by a giant spider creature.  This First Class guy fought amazingly and killed it but right before it died it stung him in the leg." Cid stood up and lit a cigarette as he spoke.  Tifa and Shera just looked at each other as Barret grew agitated. 

            "We can't just keep him here!  If he wakes up he may try to hurt us," Barret exclaimed, raising his arms in frustration.

            "No he won't.  He doesn't know that we are against Shinra.  Plus, he may be our gateway to getting into Midgar unnoticed.  He has no reason to hurt innocent civilians, just keep your cool and act normal." Cloud eased the situation with a surprisingly well thought out plan.  Cid walked outside after the ordeal and grabbed the clipboard he found in the cave.  A few splotches of blood could be seen, dried onto the Xerox paper.  Everyone met in the kitchen to finish dinner. 

            "I found this clipboard at the scene.  It has some useful information on the situation with Shinra.  It says here that this group's mission was to disassemble the Nibel Reactor and send the parts and scraps to a molding plant in Midgar.  I can only imagine that they are doing the same at the other reactors around the world." The blonde haired pilot glanced around at everyone and handed the clipboard around.

            "What would they need that much metal for?  And, why would they cut off their mako income?" Shera glanced at the blood stained board before finishing her meal.  Everyone just went silent and thought out the possibilities. 

            "Well, lets not think too much on this.  We'll just end up creating illusions.  Let's all just finish our meals and we'll learn as much as we can from this SOLDIER guy when he wakes up," Barret shook his head and sat down to finish his meal also.  Everyone followed his lead, including Cloud and Cid.  The dinner table was quiet for the rest of the evening.


End file.
